Can we change the motion of an asteroid? Our #DARTMission is set to be the first to try! The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission is a spacecraft designed to impact an asteroid as a test of technology to see if it can change the motion of an asteroid in space. The goal of the mission is to see if intentionally crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid is an effective way to change its course, should an Earth-threatening asteroid be discovered in the future. DART’s target is the binary near-Earth asteroid Didymos and its moonlet, which pose no threat to Earth.
This mission is targeted to launch at 1:21 a.m. EST, Nov. 24 (06:21 UTC), aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
Learn more about the mission at: www.nasa.gov/dart