2104 Asteroid Crisis

A massive meteor shower destroys the orbiting Space Shuttle Atlantis, before entering the atmosphere and bombarding New York City. NASA discovers that the meteors were pushed out of the asteroid belt by a rogue asteroid 20km wide that will impact Earth in 38 days, causing an extinction level event that will wipe out all life on the planet.

With the world prepared for Armageddon, NASA is tasked to come up with a solution. The depleted space agency for a number of years has been cut by politicians is now earth's only savior. NASA scientists plan to drill a deep shaft into the asteroid and plant a nuclear weapon which, when detonated, will split the asteroid into two halves that will fly safely past Earth.

Two advanced Space Shuttles, Freedom and Independence, are launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Once in orbit the shuttles dock with the Russian space station Mir manned by Lev Andropov to refuel. A fire breaks out during the fuel transfer and the station is evacuated before it explodes. Sixty hours later the shuttles slingshot around the far side of the Moon to land on the rear of the asteroid. As they travel through the asteroid's debris field, Independence's hull is punctured and it crashes.

Freedom lands safely, but misses the target area by 4 miles, meaning the team must now drill through a thicker crust of compressed iron ferrite. When they fall behind schedule and communications threaten to fail, the military initiates "Secondary Protocol"; to remotely detonate the weapon on the asteroid's surface. Knowing this would be ineffective, NASA executive Dan Truman and his team delay the military at Mission Control.

After the mission is resumed, the Freedom Armadillo strikes a methane gas pocket and is blown into space. With the mission presumed lost, worldwide panic ensues and martial law is declared in many countries, just before another meteorite destroys Paris. However the Armadillo arrived in time, as the crew from the Independence survived so the Independence's Armadillo in time to complete the drilling.

As the asteroid approaches Earth, the surviving crew is struck by a rock storm, this damages the bomb's remote trigger, meaning someone must stay behind to detonate it manually. Freedom moves to a safe distance and astronaut Harry Sampson pushes the button at the last second, successfully detonating the nuclear weapon and splitting the asteroid in two at the cost of his own life. Both halves safely fly past Earth. Freedom lands, and the surviving crew return as heroes.