Tokyo, Japan - A Japanese space probe performed a flyby of a near-Earth asteroid on Sunday, testing technology designed to protect the planet from massive space rocks.

The fridge-sized Hayabusa2 was due to fly within 0.5 miles of asteroid Torifune, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) scientists said earlier, conducting a trial run to see whether such a probe could deflect a potentially dangerous space rock.

The mission comes after NASA deliberately smashed a spacecraft into the 525-feet-wide Dimorphos asteroid in 2022, successfully altering its orbit around a larger space rock.

Moving at a speed of more than 11,185 miles per hour, Hayabusa2 was not intended to collide with Torifune. Instead, scientists wanted to assess whether they could precisely control the trajectory of the probe, should it need to perform a deflection.

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"Hayabusa2 conducted a flyby of Torifune and the spacecraft is working normally," a JAXA spokeswoman told AFP, declining to give her name.

Online footage supplied by JAXA showed scientists applauding in a control room.

"I was nervous, I felt on edge the whole time… But I'm really glad we were able to see it through to the end," one of the scientists told the JAXA broadcast.

If it is confirmed that the space probe indeed came within 0.5 miles of Torifune, the mission would be one of closest flybys of a near-Earth asteroid ever.

"It's as difficult as trying to shoot through a one-yen coin somewhere within the area stretching from Okinawa to Hokkaido," said Yuya Mimasu, a JAXA employee.