Shelved NASA spacecraft could spy on asteroid Apophis before 2029 Earth flyby

image via Space.com

September 3, 2024, 6:00 PM

• •NASA is considering pulling a pair of shelved spacecraft out of storage to facilitate a non-agency mission to spy on notorious asteroid Apophis.
• •Apophis, also known as asteroid 99942, is a 1,100-foot (340-meter) asteroid set to fly by Earth in 2029.
• •NASA's Request for Information (RFI) asks industry, academia and other researchers to propose new approaches for using the Janus spacecraft to "demonstrate a rapid-response flyby of Apophis" and further our scientific understanding of the asteroid ahead of its April 2029 near-Earth encounter.

NASA is considering pulling a pair of shelved spacecraft out of storage to facilitate a non-agency mission to spy on notorious asteroid Apophis. The Janus spacecraft are two asteroid probes originally designed to launch with NASA's Psyche probe that lifted off atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket in 2023. Now, it seems the Janus spacecraft could have second lives — fitting for a mission named after the Roman god of duality who is usually depicted as having two faces.

Read original article