NASA's Near-Earth Object Surveyor, the agency's inaugural infrared space telescope meticulously crafted to identify potentially dangerous asteroids, is in the final stages of integration and testing, with a launch anticipated no sooner than September 2027. This telescope is designed to spot dark and sun-obscured asteroids that typical ground-based facilities frequently overlook, particularly those approaching Earth from the Sun's direction. Experts at NASA caution that there are thousands of potentially hazardous near-Earth objects that have yet to be detected, a concern underscored this year when asteroid 2026 JH2 was identified just days before it came within 56,000 miles of our planet. In 2005, Congress mandated that NASA locate 90 percent of hazardous near-Earth objects exceeding 140 meters in size, a target that remains unachieved over two decades later.
