Asteroid Day Returns To Celebrate 25 Years Of Dedicated Asteroid Missions News provided by Share this article Share this article LUXEMBOURG, Feb. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Asteroid Foundation's annual Asteroid Day will return on 30 June. The theme for this year will be the 25th launch anniversary of NASA's NEAR-Shoemaker spacecraft, and the 2021 launch of three new asteroid missions, NASA's Lucy, NEA Scout and DART – the world's first mission to test an asteroid deflection technique. On 17 February 1996, NASA launched the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR)-Shoemaker mission. It was the first mission dedicated to exploring asteroids and it became the first mission to orbit and touch down on an asteroid – paving the way for all future asteroid missions.