The meteor strike happened on the same day that near-Earth asteroid 2012 DA14 will make a close flyby of Earth.

FORBES: Meteor Strikes Russia While Asteroid Misses Earth

For example, the robotic mission would help develop the precision flying techniques demanded by a manned mission to a near-Earth asteroid.

MSN: NASA might lasso an asteroid and drag it to orbit near moon

Binzel recently created a 10-point scale for estimating the threat of a near-Earth asteroid, with zero indicating no chance of an Earth impact and 10 indicating a certain Earth impact with severe, global damage.

CNN: Scientists reduce odds of Earth-asteroid collision

In 2010, when Mr Obama outlined his ideas, he spoke, somewhat vaguely, of a manned trip to a near-Earth asteroid, to be followed at some unspecified date in the 2030s by the ultimate space-cadet dream a manned mission to Mars.

ECONOMIST: The space shuttle

Meanwhile, NASA is developing a huge rocket called the Space Launch System and a capsule known as Orion to carry astronauts to a near-Earth asteroid by 2025 and the vicinity of Mars by the mid-2030s goals laid out by Obama in 2010.

MSN: Romney pledges to keep US the leader in space exploration

The world was already on edge in anticipation of the close-shave flyby of the near earth asteroid 2012 DA14, which was unexpectedly followed within the next 72 hours by two other separate fireballs over Northern California and parts of Florida.

FORBES: NASA Eager To Analyze Russian Meteor Fragments

Near-Shoemaker began its life as simply Near: Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous.

BBC: At a glance: Asteroid touchdown

It might sound like the plot of a Hollywood movie, but one gigantic asteroid is scheduled to come within 20, 000 miles of Earth in the near future -- a near miss in cosmic measurements -- and the possibility remains that it could hit our planet and cause catastrophic devastation never seen before.

CNN: Space's threat to civilization

This asteroid, like the one that will fly by on February 15, is considered a near-Earth object.

CNN: So, about that asteroid near Earth ...