Credit: ESA TV - “Rosetta spacecraft meets asteroid Steins“

Rosetta, the European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft on its way to orbit and deploy a lander on a comet, is now approaching Asteroid (2867) Šteins. The flyby will bring the spacecraft within 800 km of Šteins on Friday evening, September 5, 2008. The ESA will provide a webcast about the event beginning on September 06, 2008 from 04:00 until 11:20 GMT on the Rosetta website. Data is expect on Saturday after the flyby has been completed.

Šteins is 4.6 km in diameter and located in the main asteroid belt. Rosetta will collect information about the asteroid as it speeds by on its way to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

Here is the Šteins flyby timeline provided by ESA on the Rosetta Blog:

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