http://news.discovery.com/space/asteroi ... tance.htmlAsteroids Zipping by Earth at Less Than Moon's Distance
Not a big deal, though, it sounds like -
"These are so small we don't consider them a hazard," Lindley Johnson, head of NASA's Near-Earth Object Observations Program, told Discovery News. "Objects this small pass by Earth pretty frequently."
But, on the other hand -
About 20 percent of the known near-Earth asteroids are considered potentially hazardous because of their size and because their orbits come within 4.6 million miles of the planet. NASA is in the process of building a catalog of near-Earth objects that are at least a kilometer, or .62 miles, in diameter.
"Within 4.6 million miles" - yeah, that's narrowing it down.
Not sure what the potential hazard could be in that large a radius. Mistaken number? Anyway, they mention the change in priorities -
Under a White House proposal pending before Congress, NASA would shift its Constellation moon-bound program into a more flexible approach to space exploration, with the goal of sending astronauts to visit a near-Earth object by 2025.
Edit - added link
