MINESPACE
When and how close will Apophis come?
On Friday, April 13, 2029, asteroid (99942) Apophis will make an exceptionally close but safe passage by Earth. NASA describes the asteroid as passing approximately 32,000 kilometers (20,000 miles) above Earth’s surface. It is closer in altitude than the approximately 35,786-kilometer height of geosynchronous orbit, though its path does not establish a collision with an operating satellite.
Published close-approach values may be quoted either as distance from Earth's center or altitude above Earth's surface; these are different quantities. The MineSpace experience labels them separately. Its encounter lab begins from a documented JPL example reference state and uses an idealized Earth-centered two-body hyperbola. That is useful as an educational model, but it is not a live JPL Horizons ephemeris or a spacecraft navigation product.
Public overviews often round the altitude to about 32,000 km. The research application distinguishes surface altitude from the center-to-center distance used in its model.
Will asteroid Apophis hit Earth?
No. Improved observations allowed scientists to exclude Apophis impact possibilities that were discussed in the years after its 2004 discovery. NASA has ruled out impact risk for at least the next 100 years. “Potentially hazardous asteroid” is a classification based on size and orbital proximity; it does not mean Apophis is predicted to strike Earth.
NASA indicates that the 2029 passage could make Apophis visible without a telescope in parts of the Eastern Hemisphere. Visibility will depend on the observer’s location, weather, local light pollution and sky position. A cinematic camera pointed at Apophis is not a literal sky chart or a viewing-time recommendation for a particular city.
Earth will change the asteroid’s orbit.
The flyby is an experiment provided by nature. Earth’s gravity will bend Apophis’s trajectory around the Sun and can impose tidal stresses on its surface. Researchers are interested in whether its rotation, regolith distribution or internal structure shows measurable changes afterward. Precise results will require observations, not visual predictions inferred from a concept film.
NASA expects the pre-encounter Aten-class orbit to change into a longer-period Apollo-class orbit after the flyby. This is particularly important to mission planners: an autonomous companion would need to track the asteroid’s actual post-encounter state instead of relying on a frozen trajectory that assumes Earth never perturbed it.
Control the illustrated flyby.
Explore a clearly labeled 3D visualization and an idealized two-body encounter laboratory.
What other missions are studying Apophis?
NASA's OSIRIS-APEX spacecraft is on an independent mission to study Apophis following its 2029 passage. ESA's Ramses program is another separate asteroid-observation effort. The presence of multiple research missions underscores the science opportunity, but it must not be mistaken for a partnership with MineSpace Inc.
MineSpace’s Mission Zero frames a different, independently developed objective: autonomously rendezvous, match Apophis’s heliocentric motion and sustain companion flight as long as operational resources allow. See the companion mission overview for the engineering implications.