NASA's first flight mission for planetary defense, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) seeks to test and validate a method to protect Earth in case of an asteroid impact threat. The DART mission aims to shift an asteroid's orbit through kinetic impact – specifically, by smashing a spacecraft into the smaller member of the binary asteroid system Didymos. DART reaches its target asteroid in September 2022.
NASA’s first flight mission for planetary defense, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) seeks to test and validate a method to protect Earth in case of an asteroid impact threat. The DART mission aims to shift an asteroid’s orbit through kinetic impact – specifically, by smashing a spacecraft into the smaller member of the binary asteroid system Didymos. DART reaches its target asteroid in September 2022.
