Earth vs The Space Rocks: Managing risk on a planetary scale

The Earth has been hit before

On 30 June 1908, an enormous explosion above the Tunguska region of Siberia flattened around 2,000 square kilometres of forest. No crater. No warning. Just a shockwave powerful enough to level trees across an area comparable to a major city.

Scientists believe the cause was an asteroid or comet fragment exploding in the atmosphere.

The Tunguska event remains the largest asteroid impact event in recorded history — and the reason the world marks International Asteroid Day every 30 June.

What is Asteroid Day?

International Asteroid Day is a UN-recognised global awareness initiative dedicated to improving public understanding of asteroid risks, planetary defence and the science helping protect our shared "Spaceship Earth".

The movement was co-founded by an interesting group of visionaries: starting with a legendary rock star (Queen’s Brian May, who is also an astrophysicist), an Apollo astronaut (Rusty Schweickart), a filmmaker (Grig Richters), and a space advocate (Danica Remy). They launched the 100X Declaration, a petition signed by over 125 astronauts and thousands of citizens, calling for a 100-fold increase in our ability to track these space rocks.

The DART mission

Humanity isn't just sitting around waiting passively accepting the risk. In 2022, NASA conducted the DART mission (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) where we flew a spacecraft into a moonlet named Dimorphos to see if we could push it out of its orbit.

The outcome exceeded expectations. DART altered Dimorphos’ orbital period by approximately 32 minutes — significantly beyond the mission success threshold.

More importantly, it demonstrated something profound: planetary defence is no longer theoretical. Humanity can measurably alter the trajectory of a celestial object.

Behind that achievement sat years of programme delivery, international collaboration, systems engineering, uncertainty management and precision execution.

The DART mission wasn’t just to ‘nudge an asteroid’, it kick‑started a whole new chapter in planetary defence. Building on that momentum, the European Space Agency launched the Hera mission on the 7th October 2024, sending a spacecraft to the Didymos binary asteroid system to investigate the cosmic “crime scene” left behind.

Hera’s mission is simple in ambition but huge in impact: take humanity’s first successful asteroid deflection experiment and turn it from a one-off stunt into a proven, repeatable way to protect our planet.

APM ISS - Project management and Space

For some project professionals, you’re probably thinking, "That’s fascinating, but I manage software upgrades, not planetary defence."

Planetary defence may be one of the clearest real-world demonstrations of modern programme management in action.

Think about it:

Mission-critical timing — launch windows are unforgiving; delays cannot always be absorbed into the schedule.
Complex stakeholder ecosystems — governments, agencies, scientists, contractors and international partners must align around shared objectives.
Systems thinking at scale — tiny design decisions can cascade across tightly coupled technical, operational and organisational systems.

The APM International Space Sector Interest Network (ISS IN) exists to connect project professionals to learn, share and collaborate on some of the grand challenges that go beyond the sci-fi movies.

The Final Frontier

As we approach June 30, take a moment to appreciate that while your project deadlines are stressful, someone out there is managing a risk register for the entire planet.

Want to learn how space sector insights can help your Earth-based delivery?