 Neujmin named it after Gaspra, a Black Sea retreat that was visited by his contemporaries, such as Gorky and Tolstoy.Gaspra was the first asteroid ever to be closely approached when it was visited by the "Galileo" spacecraft, which flew by on its way to Jupiter on 29 October 1990.Apart from a multitude of small craters, Gaspra has half a dozen large flat areas and concavities.