NASA Cowboys to lasso asteroid and tow it closer to Earth

In this Jan. 13, 2013 file photo, the Orion Exploration Flight Test 1 crew module is seen in the Operations and Checkout building during a media tour at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. 

Senate Science and Space subcommittee Chairman Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla. says President Barack Obama and NASA are planning for a robotic spaceship to lasso a small asteroid and park it near the moon. 

Then astronauts would explore it in 2021. Nelson said the plan would speed up by four years an existing mission to land astronauts on an asteroid by bringing the space rock closer to Earth. 

Credit: AP Photo/John Raoux

NASA is planning for a robotic spaceship to lasso a small asteroid and park it near the moon for astronauts to explore, a top U.S. senator disclosed Friday.

The robotic ship would capture the 500-ton 25-foot (450 metric ton, 7.6 meters) asteroid in 2019.

Then using an Orion space capsule, now being developed, a crew of about four astronauts would nuzzle up next to the rock in 2021 for spacewalking exploration, according to a government document.

Sen. Bill Nelson

Sen. Bill Nelson said the plan would speed up by four years the existing mission to land astronauts on an asteroid by bringing the space rock closer to Earth.

Nelson, a Democrat who is chairman of the Senate science and space subcommittee, said Friday that President Barack Obama is putting $100 million in planning money for the accelerated asteroid mission in the 2014 budget that comes out next week.

The money would be used to find the right small asteroid. "It really is a clever concept," Nelson said in a news conference in Florida the state where NASA launches take place.

"Go find your ideal candidate for an asteroid. Go get it robotically and bring it back."