Asteroid Apophis will visit Earth in 2029, and this European satellite will be there

The European Space Agency (ESA) is accelerating a new mission called Ramses, which will fly to an asteroid near Earth 99942 Apophis and join the space rock in 2029 when it comes very close to our planet - even closer than the region where geostationary satellites are located.

Ramses is short for Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety and, as the name suggests, is the next phase in humanity's efforts to learn more about asteroids near earth (NEO's) and how we could deflect if one were ever discovered on a collision course with the planet Soil.

In order to launch ...