This is John Batcher in conversation with my good friend Bob Zimmerman about Apophis 99942 Apophis, a near-Earth asteroid that gave excitement in 2004 when it was calculated it might, slim, but might strike the

earth. Now the next iteration of Apofis will be in 2029. The closest Apofis is calculated to come to us is not

until the late 22nd century, 2183, Bob gives the date. The report here is that a private

enterprise is planning to rendezvous with Apofis in 2028 and Bob explains.

Apofis gets excitement when you think of the end of the world is 370 meters. That is ferocious and it would cause a bad day

in Paris, but it's not a planet killer, nor is it a dino killer. It's 370 meters of loose rubble coming in at a velocity and an

angle I can't calculate. Not a good thing, but quite ordinary in our solar system.

We've been a long time without a contact of a major asteroid,

near-Earth asteroid, Neo-

near-Earth object. There's Bob Zimmerman on rendezvous with Apofis in the future. I hope to see it.

The Pophis is a asteroid, it's a potentially dangerous asteroid.

They have now calculated its orbit for many, many centuries and they do not think it has any

chance of hitting the Earth at least until the late 2100.

2183 I think is the next possible impact point but even that is low low chance. it's going to pass by the earth in

2029 April 29 and there is a Sarah's Rex is right now on its way to go to do

a rendezvous to inspect it closely.

There's a few other missions that are being planned or discussed right now.

But what's interesting was announced by a private orbital tug startup called Exploration Labs, X Labs.

X Labs announced that its planet to use its orbital tug to deliver three cube sets on a rendezvous mission to the asteroid apofis

in 2028 to fly past the asteroid shortly before it reaches the Earth in 2029.

More of this later.