While America celebrated its 250th birthday with the traditional ground-based explosives, two Asian space agencies decided to mark the occasion by getting up close and personal with some space rocks.

On Sunday, Japan's aging Hayabusa2 spacecraft - which completed its main mission of grabbing samples from asteroid Ryugu back in 2020, thank you very much - flew by a peanut-shaped asteroid named Torifune. The spacecraft, launched in December 2014, had 30 kg of xenon propellant left after its main mission, so engineers figured, why not visit two more asteroids over the next decade? Torifune, about 450 meters long, was the first. Hayabusa2 passed within 800 meters of it, snapping observations until the last possible moment. JAXA says only part of the data has been transmitted so far; the rest will trickle in during future operations. The final target is a tiny 11-meter asteroid, 1998 KY26, scheduled for July 2031.

Meanwhile, China's Tianwen-2 spacecraft arrived at asteroid 469219 Kamoʻoalewa on July 2, after a 1 billion km journey. The asteroid is a mere 20 meters across and is a "quasi moon" that orbits the Sun in 365 days, leading Earth by about 4.6 million km at closest approach (no, it's not gravitationally bound to us, so don't get any ideas). China released a fuzzy arrowhead-shaped image of the rock and plans to collect samples, with a return to Earth tentatively scheduled for November 2027. After that, if all goes well, Tianwen-2 will head to an asteroid with "tails" that might actually be a comet, named 311P/PanSTARRS.

So while you were eating hot dogs, two spacecraft were busy doing actual science. You're welcome.