Editing Asteroid (section)

==== Dedicated missions ====
The first asteroid to be photographed in close-up was [[951 Gaspra]] in 1991, followed in 1993 by [[243 Ida]] and its moon [[Dactyl (asteroid)|Dactyl]], all of which were imaged by the [[Galileo (spacecraft)|''Galileo'' probe]] en route to [[Jupiter]]. Other asteroids briefly visited by spacecraft en route to other destinations include [[9969 Braille]] (by ''[[Deep Space 1]]'' in 1999), [[5535 Annefrank]] (by ''[[Stardust (spacecraft)|Stardust]]'' in 2002), [[2867 Šteins]] and [[21 Lutetia]] (by the [[Rosetta (spacecraft)|''Rosetta'' probe]] in 2008), and [[4179 Toutatis]] (China's lunar orbiter ''[[Chang'e 2]]'', which flew within {{cvt|2|mi|km|order=flip}} in 2012).

The first dedicated asteroid probe was NASA's ''[[NEAR Shoemaker]]'', which photographed [[253 Mathilde]] in 1997, before entering into orbit around [[433 Eros]], finally landing on its surface in 2001. It was the first spacecraft to successfully orbit and land on an asteroid.<ref name=twofirsts>{{cite news|url=https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/near-shoemaker/in-depth/|title=NEAR Shoemaker|publisher=NASA|accessdate=26 April 2021}}</ref> From September to November&nbsp;2005, the Japanese ''[[Hayabusa (spacecraft)|Hayabusa]]'' probe studied [[25143 Itokawa]] in detail and [[Sample return mission|returned samples]] of its surface to Earth on 13&nbsp;June 2010, the first asteroid sample-return mission. In 2007, [[NASA]] launched the [[Dawn (spacecraft)|''Dawn'']] spacecraft, which orbited [[4 Vesta]] for a year, and observed the dwarf planet [[Ceres (dwarf planet)|Ceres]] for three years.

''[[Hayabusa2]]'', a probe launched by [[JAXA]] 2014, orbited its target asteroid [[162173 Ryugu]] for more than a year and took samples that were delivered to Earth in 2020. The spacecraft is now on an extended mission and expected to arrive at a new target in 2031.

NASA launched the [[OSIRIS-REx]] in 2016, a sample return mission to asteroid [[101955 Bennu]]. In 2021, the probe departed the asteroid with a sample from its surface. Sample was delivered to Earth in September 2023. The spacecraft continues its extended mission, designated OSIRIS-APEX, to explore near-Earth asteroid Apophis in 2029.

In 2021, NASA launched [[Double Asteroid Redirection Test]] (DART), a mission to test technology for defending Earth against potential hazardous objects. DART deliberately crashed into the [[minor-planet moon]] [[Dimorphos]] of the double asteroid [[65803 Didymos|Didymos]] in September 2022 to assess the potential of a spacecraft impact to deflect an asteroid from a collision course with Earth.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Potter|first=Sean|date=2021-11-23|title=NASA, SpaceX Launch DART: First Test Mission to Defend Planet Earth|url=http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-spacex-launch-dart-first-test-mission-to-defend-planet-earth|access-date=2021-12-04|website=NASA}}</ref> In October, NASA declared DART a success, confirming it had shortened Dimorphos's orbital period around Didymos by about 32 minutes.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bardan |first=Roxana |date=2022-10-11 |title=NASA Confirms DART Mission Impact Changed Asteroid's Motion in Space |url=http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-confirms-dart-mission-impact-changed-asteroid-s-motion-in-space |access-date=2022-10-11 |website=NASA}}</ref>

NASA's ''[[Lucy (spacecraft)|Lucy]]'', launched in 2021, is a multiple-asteroid flyby probe focused on flying by 7 [[Jupiter trojan]]s of varying types. While not yet set to reach its first main target, [[3548 Eurybates]], until 2027, it has made flybys of the main-belt asteroids [[152830 Dinkinesh]] and  [[52246 Donaldjohanson]].<ref>{{citation-attribution|1={{cite web |last=Hille|first=Karl|date=2019-10-21|title=NASA's Lucy Mission Clears Critical Milestone|url=http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/lucy-mission-clears-critical-milestone|publisher=NASA|access-date=2020-12-05}} }}</ref><ref>{{citation-attribution|1={{cite web|title=Lucy: The First Mission to the Trojan Asteroids|date=21 April 2017|url=https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/lucy/overview/index|publisher=NASA|access-date=2021-10-16|archive-date=6 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201206213030/https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/lucy/overview/index|url-status=dead}} }}</ref>

<gallery mode="packed" heights="150" caption="Asteroid-dedicated space probes">
File:Hayabusa2 Ion thruster.jpg|''Hayabusa2''
File:Dawn - PIA12033.jpg|''Dawn''
File:Lucy-PatroclusMenoetius-art.png|''Lucy''
File:PSYCHE.jpg|''Psyche''
</gallery>