1900 Katyusha

1900 Katyusha (prov. designation: ) is a stony background asteroid from the inner asteroid belt, approximately 9 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 16 December 1971, by Russian astronomer Tamara Smirnova at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in Nauchnyj, on the Crimean peninsula and named in honor of Yekaterina Zelenko, the only woman to credited with conducting an aerial ramming.

Orbit and classification
Katyusha is a member of the Flora family, one of the largest groups of stony asteroids in the inner main-belt. It orbits the Sun in the inner main-belt at a distance of 1.9–2.5 AU once every 3 years and 3 months (1,200 days). Its orbit has an eccentricity of 0.13 and an inclination of 7° with respect to the ecliptic.

Naming
This minor planet was named in honor of Ukrainian Yekaterina Zelenko (1916–1941), a war pilot and Hero of the Soviet Union, known for being the only woman who had ever executed an aerial ramming. The asteroid's name "Katyusha" is a petname for Ekaterina.

Physical characteristics
It rotates around its axis with a period of $8.82$ hours and with a brightness variation of $0.299$ magnitude, indicating a non-spheroidal shape.

According to the survey carried out by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, Katyusha measures between 8.820 and 9 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo between 0.29 and 0.299. Katyusha has been characterized as a S-type asteroid.