Named in honor of Nikolaj Vladimirovich Steshenko {1927– }, deputy director of the Crimean Astro-physical Observatory, whose comprehensive support has contributed to the success of the program for the discovery and observation of minor planets. Well-known for his work in solar physics, he is in charge of the program of solar observations from space, and he is the author of the design for the Soviet 25-m-diameter mosaic optical telescope. (M 5850) _ _.
Discovered on 11-9-1972 in Nauchnyj by Chernykh, N. S.