Spacecraft visits to minor planets have mostly been flybys, and have ranged from dedicated missions to incidental flybys and targets of opportunity for spacecraft that have already completed their missions. The first spacecraft to visit an asteroid was Galileo, which flew past 951 Gaspra in October 1991; an incidental encounter while the probe was en route to Jupiter. The first dedicated mission was NEAR Shoemaker, which was launched in February 1996, and entered orbit around 433 Eros in February 2000, having first flown past 253 Mathilde. NEAR was also the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid, surviving what was intended to be an impact with Eros at 20:01 on 12 February 2001 at the planned end of its mission. As a result of its unexpected survival, the spacecraft's mission was extended until 1 March to allow data to be collected from the surface.
Spacecraft
|
Launch date[1]
|
Targeted minor planet
|
Mission
|
Outcome
|
Remarks
|
Carrier rocket[2]
|
Galileo1
|
000000001989-10-18-000018 October 19891
|
7002951000000000000♠951 Gaspra
|
Flyby
|
N/A
|
Incidental flyby en route to Jupiter; flyby occurred on 29 October 1991 with closest approach of 1,604 kilometres (997 mi) at 22:37 UTC[3]
|
STS-34 / IUS
|
7002243000000000000♠243 Ida
|
Flyby
|
N/A
|
Incidental flyby en route to Jupiter, discovered Dactyl; flyby occurred on 28 August 1993 with closest approach of 2,410 kilometres (1,500 mi) at 16:51:59 UTC[3]
|
Clementine
(DSPSE)
|
000000001994-01-25-000025 January 1994
|
7003162000000000000♠1620 Geographos
|
Flyby
|
1Spacecraft failure
|
Attitude control failure; failed to leave geocentric orbit after first phase of mission exploring the Moon. Flyby had been planned for August 1994[4]
|
Titan II(23)G
|
NEAR Shoemaker
(Discovery 2)1
|
000000001996-02-17-000017 February 19961
|
7002253000000000000♠253 Mathilde
|
Flyby
|
4Successful
|
Closest approach 1,212 kilometres (753 mi) at 12:56 UTC on 27 June 1997[5]
|
Delta II 7925
|
7002433000000000000♠433 Eros
|
Orbiter
|
3Mostly successful
|
Aborted burn three days before arrival at Eros resulted in failure to enter orbit, instead flew past at 3,827 kilometres (2,378 mi) at 18:41:23 on 23 December 1998. Insertion reattempted successfully on 14 February 2000. Impacted asteroid at 20:01 on 12 February 2001 at end of mission, but survived impact and continued to operate on surface until 1 March.[5]
|
Cassini–Huygens
|
000000001997-10-15-000015 October 1997[1]
|
7003268500000000000♠2685 Masursky
|
Flyby
|
N/A
|
Distant incidental flyby en route to Saturn; closest approach 1.5 million kilometres (0.9 million miles) at 09:58 UTC on 23 January 2000[6]
|
Titan IV(401)B Centaur-T[7]
|
Deep Space 1 1
|
000000001998-10-24-000024 October 19981
|
7003401500000000000♠4015 Wilson–Harrington[8]
|
Flyby
|
1Spacecraft failure
|
Spacecraft was unable to reach the asteroid due to ion engine operation being suspended while a problem with the probe's star tracker was investigated[9]
|
Delta II 7326
|
7003996900000000000♠9969 Braille
|
Flyby
|
2Partial failure
|
Closest approach 28.3 kilometres (17.6 mi) at 04:46 UTC[9] on 29 July 1999. Intended to pass within 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) but this was not achieved due to a computer failure, poor-quality images returned as a result.[10] Flyby added to mission following loss of ability to reach Wilson–Harrington
|
Stardust
(Discovery 4)
|
000000001999-02-07-00007 February 1999
|
7003553500000000000♠5535 Annefrank[11]
|
Flyby
|
4Successful
|
Closest approach of 3,079 kilometres (1,913 mi) at 04:50:20 UTC on 2 November 2002
|
Delta II 7426
|
Hayabusa
(MUSES-C)
|
000000002003-05-09-00009 May 2003
|
7004251430000000000♠25143 Itokawa
|
Orbiter/lander
Sample return
|
2Partial failure
|
Reached Itokawa on 12 September 2005, landed briefly on 19 and 25 November but sampler failed to operate, missed return window due to communications outage, finally returned to Earth on 13 June 2010
|
M-V
|
Minerva
|
7004251430000000000♠25143 Itokawa
|
Lander
|
1Spacecraft failure
|
Deployed from Hayabusa on 12 November 2005; Accidentally released while Hayabusa was moving away from Itokawa; reached escape velocity and drifted off into heliocentric orbit
|
Rosetta1
|
000000002004-03-02-00002 March 2004
|
7003286700000000000♠2867 Šteins
|
Flyby
|
4Successful
|
Closest approach 800 kilometres (500 mi) on 5 September 2008
|
Ariane 5G+
|
7001210000000000000♠21 Lutetia
|
Flyby
|
4Successful
|
Closest approach 3,162 kilometres (1,965 mi) on 10 July 2010
|
Deep Impact
(Discovery 7)
|
000000002005-01-12-000012 January 2005
|
7005163249000000000♠163249 2002 GT
|
Flyby
|
1Spacecraft failure
(Extended mission)
|
Extended mission (EPOXI), flyby was expected in 2020, but communication with the spacecraft was lost in August 2013
|
Delta II 7925
|
New Horizons
(New Frontiers 1)1
|
000000002006-01-19-000019 January 2006
|
7005132524000000000♠132524 APL
|
Flyby
|
N/A
|
Incidental flyby en route to Pluto, closest approach 101,867 kilometres (63,297 mi) at 04:05 UTC on 13 June 2006
|
Atlas V 551
|
7005134340000000000♠134340 Pluto and it's five moons.
|
Flyby
|
4Successful
|
Flyby occurred on 14 July 2015
|
2014 MU69
|
Flyby
|
6En route
|
Flyby expected in January 2019
|
Dawn
(Discovery 9)1
|
000000002007-09-27-000027 September 2007
|
7000400000000000000♠4 Vesta
|
Orbiter
|
4Successful
|
Orbited Vesta from 16 July 2011 to 5 September 2012, before departing for Ceres
|
Delta II 7925H
|
7000100000000000000♠1 Ceres
|
Orbiter
|
4Successful
|
Arrived in 2015
|
Chang'e-2
|
000000002010-10-01-00001 October 2010
|
7003417900000000000♠4179 Toutatis
|
Flyby
|
4Successful
|
Flyby on 13 December 2012, closest approach 3.2 kilometres (2.0 mi)
|
Chang Zheng 3C
|
Hayabusa 2
|
000000002014-12-03-00003 December 2014
|
7005162173000000000♠162173 Ryugu
|
Orbiter/lander
Sample return
|
6En route
|
|
H-IIA 202
|
Minerva II-1A
|
Lander
|
6En route
|
To be deployed from Hayabusa 2
|
Minerva II-1B
|
Lander
|
6En route
|
To be deployed from Hayabusa 2
|
Minerva II-2
|
Lander
|
6En route
|
To be deployed from Hayabusa 2
|
MASCOT
|
Lander
|
6En route
|
To be deployed from Hayabusa 2
|
SCI
|
Impactor
|
6En route
|
To be deployed from Hayabusa 2
|
DCAM-3
|
Orbiter
|
6En route
|
To be deployed from Hayabusa 2, will be used to observe SCI impact
|
PROCYON
|
7005185851000000000♠185851 2000 DP107
|
Flyby
|
6En route
|
Flyby planned for 2016
|
This article was sourced from Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. World Heritage Encyclopedia content is assembled from numerous content providers, Open Access Publishing, and in compliance with The Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act (FASTR), Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., Public Library of Science, The Encyclopedia of Life, Open Book Publishers (OBP), PubMed, U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, and USA.gov, which sources content from all federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial government publication portals (.gov, .mil, .edu). Funding for USA.gov and content contributors is made possible from the U.S. Congress, E-Government Act of 2002.
Crowd sourced content that is contributed to World Heritage Encyclopedia is peer reviewed and edited by our editorial staff to ensure quality scholarly research articles.
By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. World Heritage Encyclopedia™ is a registered trademark of the World Public Library Association, a non-profit organization.