NASA set to launch mission to crash into near-Earth asteroid

A NASA spacecraft that will deliberately crash into an asteroid is preparing to launch this week. The DART mission, or the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, will lift off at 1:20 a.m. EST on November 24 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

The DART mission, or the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, will lift off at 1:20 a.m. EST on November 24 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Live coverage of the event will air on NASA TV and the agency's site.

But the true test for this asteroid deflection technology will come in September 2022, when the spacecraft reaches its destination, to see how it impacts the motion of a near-Earth asteroid in space.

The mission target is Dimorphos, a small moon orbiting the near-Earth asteroid Didymos. This will be the agency's first full-scale demonstration of this type of technology on behalf of planetary defence. It also will be the first time humans have altered the dynamics of a solar system body in a measurable way, according to the European Space Agency.

Near-Earth objects are asteroids and comets with orbits that place them within 48 million kilometres of Earth. Detecting the threat of near-Earth objects, or NEOs, that could potentially cause grave harm is a primary focus of NASA and other space organizations around the world.