NASA's DART Spacecraft Colliding with Asteroid on September 26, 2022

NASA's DART Spacecraft Colliding with Asteroid on September 26, 2022

Looking Back at DART’s Unboxing

Image Description: Technicians prepare to move NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft onto a work stand inside the Astrotech Space Operations Facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California following its arrival at the facility on Oct. 4, 2021.

DART was launched on Nov. 23, 2021, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg. The spacecraft will intentionally smash into the moonlet Didymos on Sept. 26, 2022, to see if this method of asteroid deflection—known as the kinetic impactor technique—would be a viable way to protect our planet if an asteroid on a collision course with Earth were discovered in the future.

Image Credit: United States Space Force (USSF) 30th Space Wing/Aaron Taubm

Release Date: September 26, 2022

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