NASA's asteroid-deflection DART spacecraft is close to planned impact with its target
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben
NASA's asteroid-deflection DART spacecraft inched closer to a planned impact with its target on Monday in a test of the world's first planetary defense system.
It took place ten months before its launch
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben
Dart, launched by a SpaceX rocket in November 2021, made most of its journey under the guidance of NASA flight directors
which was designed to prevent a doomsday collision with earth.
The cube-shaped "impactor" vehicle, roughly shaped like a vending machine with two rectangular solar arrays
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben
DART's astronomical target is an asteroid "Moonlight" of about 560 feet (170 m) in diameter that orbits a parent asteroid five times larger.
This is the world's first attempt to change the motion of an asteroid, or a celestial body.