--- ---  # Here's How NASA Plans to Capture an Asteroid by [Laura Stampler](https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Jun 20, 2014 3:18 PM UTC  Armageddon by [Laura Stampler](https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Jun 20, 2014 3:18 PM UTC [Asteroid Redirect Mission Concept Animation.](http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x13ogsw%5Fasteroid-redirect-mission-concept-animation%5Ftech) _by_ [_mistersexybuzz_](http://www.dailymotion.com/mistersexybuzz) NASA has a special project of Bruce Willis proportions: It’s going to have [astronauts redirect an asteroid.](http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/20/5827310/nasa-asteroid-capture-2019) (Don’t worry, not because it’s plummeting towards earth—it’s for _science_.) And the mission isn’t mere speculation. Although the project has been discussed for a while, NASA announced that it will pick an asteroid in 2019 and the spaceship is expected to launch in 2019\. In the following years, astronauts will stalk and capture the asteroid, sending it off into a lunar orbit. You can see how NASA plans to pull it off in the above video. Michael Bay literally cannot wait! Hopefully this will all be streaming, because, in the words of Aerosmith, [“I don’t want to miss a thing.”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DG%5FVMJg7oMM&feature=kp) ([h/t: The Verge](http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/20/5827310/nasa-asteroid-capture-2019)) NASA Has A Mission to Capture, Redirect an Asteroid ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2905039/heres-how-nasa-plans-to-capture-an-asteroid/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2905039/heres-how-nasa-plans-to-capture-an-asteroid/"},"headline":"Here's How NASA Plans to Capture an Asteroid","datePublished":"2014-06-20T15:18:15.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:10:59.496Z","description":"Don't worry — not because it's crashing towards earth","url":"https://time.com/2905039/heres-how-nasa-plans-to-capture-an-asteroid/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Space","NASA","Science topic","astronauts"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8fd8dae9d848a5c1/69869896f983e76dbc04e808/unknown1.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Laura Stampler","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8fd8dae9d848a5c1/69869896f983e76dbc04e808/unknown1.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"armageddon","caption":"","creditText":"Armageddon","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2905039/heres-how-nasa-plans-to-capture-an-asteroid/","name":"Here's How NASA Plans to Capture an Asteroid"}}]}] ```