Recently there have been reports of crafts that plan to retrieve large quantities of platinum and precious metals from near-Earth asteroids, as well as water for the production of rocket fuel.
MegaPhase is the only provider of RF cables that has already rendezvoused with an asteroid. The Japanese Hayabusa space probe, equipped with MegaPhase's GrooveTube cable assemblies, captured particles from the asteroid Itokawa in 2010. The seven year mission began in May 2003, when the Hayabusa spacecraft launched.
In September of 2005, the Hayabusa engaged the Itokawa asteroid and studied the asteroid's shape, spin, topography, color, composition, density, and history before landing on the asteroid in November of 2005 and collecting samples of the asteroidal material. The Hayabusa returned to Earth five years later in June of 2010, after traveling more than 186,411,358 miles (twice the distance between the earth and the sun) and undergoing rigorous testing including radiation, thermal shock and vibration.