Asteroids Visited by Spacecraft
The near-Earth asteroids that spacecraft have flown past, orbited, landed on, sampled or deliberately struck — each linked to its mission.
All objectsPotentially hazardousClose approachesVisited by spacecraftImpact risk listRecently discovered
| Object | Mission | Diameter | Class |
|---|---|---|---|
Apophis 99942 |
OSIRIS-APEX | 375 m | Aten |
Bennu 101955 |
OSIRIS-REx | 490 m | Apollo |
Didymos 65803 |
DART / Hera | 780 m | Apollo |
Ryugu 162173 |
Hayabusa2 | 900 m | Apollo |
Itokawa 25143 |
Hayabusa | 330 m | Apollo |
Eros 433 |
NEAR Shoemaker | 17 km | Amor |
Phaethon 3200 |
DESTINY+ | 5.1 km | Apollo |
Toutatis 4179 |
Chang’e 2 | 2.8 km | Apollo |
A handful of near-Earth asteroids have been visited up close — flown past, orbited, landed on, sampled, or even deliberately struck. These encounters turned points of light into real worlds with boulders, craters and loose rubble, and two of them returned physical pieces of an asteroid to Earth. Each object below links to its mission among our spacecraft and probes.
Frequently asked questions
Which asteroids have had samples returned to Earth?
Itokawa, Ryugu and Bennu. Hayabusa returned the first asteroid sample from Itokawa, Hayabusa2 brought back material from Ryugu, and OSIRIS-REx returned a sample from Bennu in 2023.
Has a spacecraft ever hit an asteroid on purpose?
Yes — the DART mission deliberately struck Dimorphos, the small moonlet of Didymos, in 2022 to test whether an impact can change an asteroid’s orbit as a planetary-defence technique.
Has anything landed on an asteroid?
NEAR Shoemaker touched down on Eros in 2001, the first landing on an asteroid, and the Hayabusa missions briefly touched their targets to collect samples.