In April 2029, the infamous asteroid Apophis, nicknamed the “God of Chaos,” will make a historic flyby of Earth.

At over 1,100 feet wide, Apophis will pass closer than our geostationary satellites — but it poses no threat of impact. In fact, this once-in-a-lifetime event will be visible to nearly 2 billion people with the naked eye.

And humanity won’t just be watching from Earth. Three spacecraft are preparing to meet Apophis up close.

The European Space Agency’s Ramses mission will launch in 2028. If funded, it will orbit Apophis, deploy two cubesats — and possibly even land one on the asteroid. Its goal: to measure Apophis’ orbit, rotation, and how Earth’s gravity reshapes its surface.

Japan’s DESTINY+ mission, originally aimed at another asteroid, has been rerouted to swing by Apophis before continuing to 3200 Phaethon.

And NASA’s OSIRIS-APEX, fresh from its mission to asteroid Bennu, is on track to rendezvous with Apophis as well, studying its composition and even firing thrusters near the surface to see how it reacts.

Together, these three missions will provide the most detailed observations ever made of a near-Earth asteroid during a planetary flyby.

On April 13, 2029, Apophis will skim past Earth in a spectacle no one should miss — a close encounter that could redefine our understanding of asteroid evolution, planetary defense, and the chaotic beauty of our solar system.