List of missions to minor planets

List of missions to minor planets is a listing of spaceflight missions to minor planets, which are category of astronomical body that excludes planets, moons and comets, but orbit the Sun. Most missions to minor planets have been to asteroids or dwarf planets.

An artist's impression of New Horizons' close encounter with the Plutonian system

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 Pioneer 10, which flew past an unnamed asteroid on 2 August 1972; a distant 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.

Missions

There have been thirty-three overall missions towards minor planets, with four of them being flyby missions that were not intended to explore minor planets, marked in grey background.^[1][2]

Many minor planets are in two domains:

• Asteroid belt, between 2–3 AU (0.30–0.45 billion km)
• Kuiper belt, between 30–60 AU (4.5–9.0 billion km)

Mission		Spacecraft	Launch date	Carrier rocket	Operator	Destination	Mission type	Outcome
–	Pioneer 10	Pioneer 10	2 March 1972	Atlas SLV-3C Centaur-D Star-37E	NASA	Unnamed asteroid[3]	Flyby	—
						307 Nike		—
		Distant incidental flybys en route to Jupiter; closest approaches occurred on 2 August 1972 and 2 December 1972, respectively, with a distance of 8.8 million km (5.5 million mi).
–	Galileo project	Galileo	18 October 1989	Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-34 / IUS	NASA	951 Gaspra	Flyby	Successful
						243 Ida		Successful
		Incidental flybys en route to Jupiter; flyby of 951 Gaspra occurred on 29 October 1991 with closest approach of 1,604 kilometres (997 mi) at 22:37 UTC; flyby of 243 Ida occurred on 28 August 1993 with closest approach of 2,410 kilometres (1,500 mi) at 16:51:59 UTC;[4] discovered Dactyl
1	DSPSE	Clementine	25 January 1994	Titan II(23)G	NASA	1620 Geographos	Flyby	Spacecraft failure
		Attitude control failure; failed to leave geocentric orbit after first phase of mission exploring the Moon. Flyby had been planned for August 1994[5]
2	Discovery 1	NEAR Shoemaker	17 February 1996	Delta II 7925	NASA	253 Mathilde	Flyby	Successful
						433 Eros	Orbiter	Mostly successful
		Closest approach to Mathilde was 1,212 kilometres (753 mi) at 12:56 UTC on 27 June 1997. Three days before arrival at Eros the orbiter aborted a burn resulting 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.[6]
–	Cassini-Huygens	Cassini	15 October 1997[1]	Titan IV(401)B Centaur-T[7]	NASA	2685 Masursky	Flyby	—
		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[8]
3	New Millennium 1	Deep Space 1	24 October 1998	Delta II 7326	NASA	4015 Wilson–Harrington[9]	Flyby	Spacecraft failure
						9969 Braille		Partial failure
		Spacecraft was unable to reach Wilson–Harrington due to ion engine operation being suspended while a problem with the probe's star tracker was investigated.[10] Braille flyby added to mission following loss of ability to reach Wilson–Harrington. Closest approach 28.3 kilometres (17.6 mi) at 04:46 UTC[10] 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.[11]
4	Discovery 4	Stardust	7 February 1999	Delta II 7426	NASA	5535 Annefrank[12]	Flyby	Successful
		Closest approach of 3,079 kilometres (1,913 mi) at 04:50:20 UTC on 2 November 2002.
5	Hayabusa (formerly: MUSES-C)	Hayabusa	9 May 2003	M-V	JAXA	25143 Itokawa	Orbiter/Lander/Sample returner	Successful
		MINERVA					Lander	Failure
		First asteroid sample return mission. Reached Itokawa on 12 September 2005, landed briefly on 19 and 25 November, collected samples, missed return window due to communications outage, finally returned to Earth on 13 June 2010. MINERVA deployable lander was deployed from Hayabusa on 12 November 2005 but was accidentally released while Hayabusa was moving away from Itokawa; reached escape velocity and drifted off into heliocentric orbit
6	Cornerstone 3	Rosetta	2 March 2004	Ariane 5G+	ESA	2867 Šteins	Flyby	Successful
						21 Lutetia		Successful
		Philae				67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko	Lander	Successful
		Closest approach of Šteins at 800 kilometres (500 mi) on 5 September 2008. Closest approach of Lutetia at 3,162 kilometres (1,965 mi) on 10 July 2010. Rendezvous with Churyumov–Gerasimenko 6 August 2014, orbit on 10 September 2014; Philae (lander) landed on 12 November 2014, Rosetta itself landed on 30 September 2016.
7	Discovery 7	Deep Impact	12 January 2005	Delta II 7426	NASA	(163249) 2002 GT	Flyby	Spacecraft failure (Extended mission)
		Extended mission (EPOXI), flyby was expected in 2020, but communication with the spacecraft was lost in August 2013.
8	New Frontiers 1	New Horizons	19 January 2006	Atlas V 551	NASA	132524 APL	Incidental flyby	—
						134340 Pluto and its five moons.	Flyby	Successful
						486958 Arrokoth		Successful
		Closest approach of APL at 101,867 kilometres (63,297 mi) at 04:05 UTC on 13 June 2006. First probe to flyby Pluto, on 14 July 2015. Flyby of Arrokoth occurred on 1 January 2019.
9	Discovery 9	Dawn	27 September 2007	Delta II 7925H	NASA	4 Vesta	Orbiter	Successful
						1 Ceres		Successful
		Orbited Vesta from 16 July 2011 to 5 September 2012, before departing for Ceres. Arrived at Ceres in 2015.
10	Chang'e 2	Chang'e 2	1 October 2010	Long March 3C	CNSA	4179 Toutatis	Flyby	Successful
		Flyby on 13 December 2012, closest approach 3.2 kilometres (2.0 mi).
11	Hayabusa2	Hayabusa-2	3 December 2014	H-IIA 202	JAXA	162173 Ryugu	Orbiter/Lander/Sample Returner	Successful
		DCAM-3					Orbiter	Successful
		SCI impactor					Impactor	Successful
		HIBOU					Lander	Successful
		OWL						Successful
		MINERVA II-2						Spacecraft failure
		MASCOT						Successful
		PROCYON				(185851) 2000 DP107	Flyby	Spacecraft failure
		Hayabusa-2 arrived in 2018, landed in February and July 2019; sample returned to Earth on 5 December 2020 UTC. HIBOU and OWL were both deployed on 21 September 2018. MINERVA-II was deployed on 2 October 2019; it had failed prior to deployment but was deployed anyway to observe the effects of gravity on it as it descended to the surface. MASCOT was deployed on 3 October 2018; operated for 17 hours. DCAM-3 and SCI Impactor were deployed on 5 April 2019; DCAM-3 observed SCI impact. PROCYON flyby of 2000 DP had been planned for 2016; cancelled due to ion engine failure in heliocentric orbit.[13]
12	New Frontiers 3	OSIRIS-REx / OSIRIS-APEX[a]	8 September 2016	Atlas V 411	NASA	101955 Bennu	Orbiter/Sample Returner	Successful
						99942 Apophis	Orbiter/Regolith Disturber	en route
		Successfully collected sample of Bennu on 20 October 2020 and returned the sample to Earth on 24 September 2023. For its extended mission called OSIRIS-APEX, the spacecraft is now en route to encounter Apophis on 8 April 2029.
13	Discovery 13	Lucy	16 October 2021	Atlas V 401	NASA	152830 Dinkinesh	Flyby	Successful
						52246 Donaldjohanson		Successful
						3548 Eurybates		planned
						15094 Polymele		planned
						11351 Leucus		planned
						21900 Orus		planned
						617 Patroclus		planned
		Closest approach of Dinkinesh at 425 km (264 mi) at 16:54 UTC on 1 November 2023. Flyby of Donaldjohanson on 20 April 2025, Eurybates on 12 August 2027, Polymele on 15 September 2027, Leucus on 18 April 2028, Orus on 11 November 2028 and Patroclus on 2 March 2033.
14	SSE 1	DART	24 November 2021	Falcon 9	NASA	Dimorphos	Impactor	Successful
		LICIACube			ASI	65803 Didymos system	Flyby	Successful
		The U.S. component of AIDA. DART impacted 23:14 UTC 26 September 2022. LICIACube separated from DART on 11 September 2022 and on flew by about 3 minutes after DART's impact.
–	NEA Scout	NEA Scout	16 November 2022	SLS Block 1	NASA	2020 GE	Flyby	Spacecraft failure
		Spacecraft was to perform a series of lunar flybys before targeting asteroid in September 2023, but after launch contact was lost and later the mission was declared as a failure.
15	Discovery 14	Psyche	16 November 2022	Falcon Heavy	NASA	16 Psyche	Orbiter	en route
		Arrives in August 2029.[14]
16	Hera	Hera	7 October 2024	Falcon 9	ESA	65803 Didymos system	Orbiter	en route
		Milani					Orbiter	en route
		Juventas					Orbiter	en route
		The European component of AIDA. Arrives in December 2026 according to current plans.[15]
17	Brokkr-2	Odin	February 26, 2025	Falcon 9 Block 5	AstroForge	2022 OB5	Flyby	Spacecraft failure
		was expected to reach 2022 OB5, a suspected M-type near-Earth object, in December 2025, but failed after launch.[16]
18	Tianwen-2	Tianwen-2	May 29, 2025	Long March 3B	CNSA	469219 Kamoʻoalewa	Sample return	en route
						311P/PANSTARRS	Orbiter	en route
		Explore the co-orbital near-Earth asteroid 469219 Kamoʻoalewa and the active asteroid 311P/PanSTARRS and collecting samples of the regolith of Kamo'oalewa.[17]

Statistics

Major milestones

Legend

  Milestone achieved
  Milestone not achieved
† First to achieve

Asteroid belt

Country/Agency	Flyby	Orbit	Impact	Touchdown	Lander	Hopper	Rover	Sample return
United States	Pioneer 10, (unnamed asteroid) 1972 †	NEAR Shoemaker, (Eros) 2000 †	NEAR Shoemaker, (Eros) 2001 †	OSIRIS-REx, 2020	—	—	—	OSIRIS-REx, 2023
Japan	—	—	SCI, (Ryugu) 2014	Hayabusa, (Itokawa) 2005 †	—	HIBOU and OWL, (Ryugu) 2018 †	—	Hayabusa, (Itokawa) 2010 †
ESA	Rosetta, (Šteins) 2008	Rosetta, (Churyumov–Gerasimenko) 2014	—	—	Philae, (Churyumov–Gerasimenko) 2014 †	—	—	—
China	Chang'e 2, (Toutatis) 2012	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
Italy	LICIACube, (Didymos system) 2022	—	—	—	—	—	—	—

Kuiper belt

Country/Agency	Flyby	Orbit
United States	New Horizons, (Pluto) 2015 †	—

Future missions

Mission	Spacecraft	Launch date	Carrier rocket	Operator	Destination	Mission type
Tianwen-2	Tianwen-2	May 2025[18]	Long March 3B	CNSA	469219 Kamoʻoalewa	Orbiter/lander/Sample return
	Planned arrival in 2026[19][20]
DESTINY+	DESTINY+	2028[21]	H3	JAXA	3200 Phaethon	Flyby
	Planned arrival in 2030.[21]
MBR Explorer	MBR Explorer	March 2028[22]	H3[23]	UAESA	10253 Westerwald	Flyby
					623 Chimaera
					13294 Rockox
					(88055) 2000 VA28
					(23871) 1998 RC76
					(59980) 1999 SG6
	MBR Lander				269 Justitia	Orbiter/lander
	Planned flybys of six asteroids between 2030 and 2033, then orbiting Justitia in October 2034 and landing there in May 2035.

See also

• List of minor planets and comets visited by spacecraft
• Timeline of Solar System exploration
  • List of missions to Venus
  • List of missions to the Moon
  • List of missions to Mars
  • List of missions to the outer planets
  • List of missions to comets

Notes

1. The same spacecfraft used for Bennu mission will be used in studying Apophis. While the spacecraft remained same, only the mission was renamed as OSIRIS-APEX.