KIEV, Oct. 7 - Dnipropetrovsk’s Yuzhnoye design bureau has proposed using a modernized Zenit space rocket to rule out the threat of the Earth's collision with the asteroid Apophis, which U.S. scientists suggest could occur in 2036.

A Zenit rocket could be equipped with a third stage to minimize the likelihood that Apophis could get into the Earth's gravitational pull, which could happen when the asteroid passes the Earth in 2029 and which would make a collision almost certain in 2036, said Mykola Slyunyayev, a Yuzhnoye scientific and technical council secretary.