Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) are asteroids and comets that orbit the Sun, but have orbits that can bring them into Earth’s neighborhood—within 30 million miles of Earth’s orbit. Planetary defense is “applied planetary science” to address the NEO impact risks on Earth.

This National Preparedness Strategy and Action Plan for Near-Earth Objects and Planetary Defense (2023 Planetary Defense Strategy) updates the United States’ first comprehensive Near-Earth Object Preparedness Strategy and Action Plan, released in 2018. The 2023 Planetary Defense Strategy builds on existing efforts by Federal Departments and Agencies to address the hazard of near-Earth object impacts, includes evaluation of where progress has been made since 2018, and focuses future work on planetary defense across the U.S. government. The 2023 Planetary Defense Strategy maintains and updates the core five goals of the 2018 Strategy and Action Plan, while adding a sixth goal to improve governance and interagency coordination on planetary defense issues across Federal Departments and Agencies for the decade ahead.

The 2023 Planetary Defense Strategy focuses on six goals:

• Goal 1: Enhance NEO detection, tracking, and characterization capabilities.

• Goal 2: Improve NEO modeling, prediction, and information integration.

• Goal 3: Develop technologies for NEO deflection and disruption missions.

• Goal 4: Increase international cooperation on NEO preparation.

• Goal 5: Strengthen and routinely exercise NEO impact emergency procedures and action protocols.

• Goal 6: Improve U.S. governance of planetary defense through new interagency collaboration.