In the first week of July 2026, two separate spacecraft operated by Asian space agencies executed the closest-ever flybys of their respective target asteroids, delivering a dual advance for both planetary science and the nascent discipline of planetary defence. China’s Tianwen-2 probe closed to within 20 kilometres of the tiny quasi-satellite Kamoʻoalewa, while Japan’s Hayabusa2 hurtled past the near-Earth object Torifune at a distance estimated between 800 metres and 10 kilometres. The manoeuvres, conducted within days of each other, demonstrate a rapidly maturing capacity to navigate precisely around small bodies that could one day pose a threat to Earth.

Tianwen-2, launched in May 2025, travelled roughly one billion kilometres over 13 months to reach 2016 HO3, better known as Kamoʻoalewa. The asteroid, between 40 and 100 metres in diameter, is one of only seven known quasi-satellites of Earth, following an orbit around the Sun that keeps it in the planet’s vicinity for extended periods. The first close-up image, transmitted after the probe’s arrival on 2 July, reveals a rocky body whose origin remains uncertain; telescopic observations had suggested it could be a fragment of the Moon. The Chinese National Space Administration plans to land on the object, collect samples, and return them to Earth before the spacecraft departs for a second target, the main-belt comet 311P.

Japan’s Hayabusa2, a veteran of the successful Ryugu sample-return mission in 2020, conducted its flyby of asteroid (98943) Torifune on 5 July. The refrigerator-sized probe, travelling at over 18,000 kilometres per hour, was not designed to impact the asteroid but to test the extreme precision required for future deflection missions. Scientists at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency sought to validate navigation and control systems capable of guiding a spacecraft to within a few hundred metres of a fast-moving object. The operation also gathered high-resolution images and data on surface texture and temperature, information that would be critical for any attempt to alter an asteroid’s trajectory. The test follows NASA’s 2022 DART mission, which successfully changed the orbit of Dimorphos by deliberate collision, and adds a reconnaissance capability that many strategists consider essential before any deflection attempt.

Neither asteroid poses a current impact risk, but the missions feed into a broader international effort to catalogue and characterise near-Earth objects. The European Space Agency is developing the Ramses mission to accompany the 375-metre asteroid Apophis during its exceptionally close—but safe—flyby in April 2029, an event expected to be visible to the naked eye across much of the globe. For Tianwen-2, the immediate next step is a landing attempt on Kamoʻoalewa to collect samples, while Hayabusa2 will continue its extended journey toward the small asteroid 1998 KY26, with a rendezvous planned for 2031.