NASA to launch first asteroid-bashing DART as trailblazing planetary defense mission

Hazardous asteroids have impacted Earth in the past and there’s looming concern over future threats. NASA will attempt a unique feat: the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission to slam into a tiny asteroid and slightly speed up its orbit as early as November 23. NASA plans to crash a spacecraft traveling at a speed of 15,000 miles per hour (24,000 kph) into an asteroid next year in a test of ‘planetary defense’.

DART is to determine whether this is an effective way to deflect the course of an asteroid should one threaten the Earth in the future. The mission carries a price tag of $330 million. “As a technology test, the mission will help determine 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,” NASA said in a statement. “DART's target asteroid is not a threat to Earth.”

The DART spacecraft is scheduled to be launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 10:20 pm Pacific time on November 23 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California and around that time, it can impact with the asteroid some 6.8 million miles from Earth that would occur between September 26 and October 1 of next year.