Asteroid Mission Update
NASA Announces Latest Progress, Upcoming Milestones in Hunt for Asteroids
“NASA is on the hunt for an asteroid to capture with a robotic spacecraft, redirect to a stable orbit around the moon, and send astronauts to study in the 2020s — all on the agency’s human Path to Mars. Agency officials announced on Thursday, June 19, recent progress to identify candidate asteroids for its Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM), increase public participation in the search for asteroids, and advance the mission’s design.”
so originally the capture vehicle was supposed to launch in 2017 and get to the asteroid by 2019. we haven’t even got past the powerpoint design phase to stand up a program and already slipped 2 years to the right!
Doesnt really seem to matter since the NRC report and so many experts say it is not likely to contribute much to the long term goal. Its just something to do for a few years.