International fleet of probes to study near-Earth asteroid Apophis during 2029 flyby
On 13 April 2029, asteroid Apophis will skim Earth at about 32,000 km, prompting NASA, ESA and JAXA to launch coordinated missions that will closely observe the rock.
Apophis, a roughly 340-metre near-Earth asteroid discovered in 2004, will pass 32,000 km from Earth on 13 April 2029, well below geostationary orbit. While impact risk has been ruled out, the event provides a rare chance to study how a close planetary encounter affects an asteroid’s structure. NASA will repurpose the OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft for the OSIRIS-APEX mission, arriving in June 2029 to conduct thruster-induced regolith experiments.
ESA’s Ramses probe, sharing a launch on JAXA’s H3 rocket with DESTINY+, will approach within 1 km and deploy two CubeSats—Don Quijote, a seismometer lander, and Farinella, a radar orbiter—to probe the interior. JAXA’s DESTINY+ will fly past Apophis weeks earlier at 1.5 km s⁻¹, then continue to its primary target, asteroid Phaethon. A Chinese university team hopes to launch the START CubeSat on a Landspace Zhuque-3 rocket, aiming for a 7-km flyby at 8.7 km s⁻¹.
Coordinated observations from NASA’s Goldstone radar and ground telescopes will complement the space missions, all overseen by a UN-facilitated expert group. The combined effort aims to improve planetary-defense knowledge by revealing the asteroid’s internal makeup and tidal response.
Why it matters
Studying Apophis up close will give scientists vital data to protect Earth from future asteroid threats.
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