Asteroid Retrieval Initiative, NASA, Washington, D.C., USA


DART mission explained

Sep 26, 2022

The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) is NASA’s demonstration of kinetic impactor technology, impacting an asteroid to adjust its speed and path. DART is scheduled to impact the asteroid Dimorphos, from the binary asteroid system Didymos, in September 2022.
 

DART hits asteroid Dimorphos!

Sep 27, 2022

For NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), the DART spacecraft impacted asteroid Dimorphos, from the binary asteroid system Didymos, on 26 September 2022, at 23:14 UTC (19:14 EDT). The binary asteroid system Didymos is NOT a threat to Earth, making it a perfect testing ground to see if intentionally crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid is an effective way to change its course.
 

DART's impact with asteroid Dimorphos (Official NASA broadcast)

September 26, 2022

Countdown to impact as NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) attempts humanity’s first-ever test of planetary defense! The DART spacecraft will intentionally crash into asteroid Dimorphos at 7:14 p.m. ET on Monday, September 26, 2022 to see if kinetic force can change its orbit. Why? If this test is successful, the same technique could be used to deflect an Earth-threatening asteroid in the future, should one ever be discovered.

The #DARTMission's target asteroid is NOT a threat to Earth before, during or after the impact event.
 

Hubble views aftermath of DART Impact

Oct 3, 2022

The DART mission deployed a kinetic impactor to smack the small moon Dimorphos of the asteroid Didymos on the evening of Sept. 26.

This was an on-orbit demonstration of asteroid deflection, a key test of NASA's kinetic impactor technology, designed to impact an asteroid to adjust its speed and path.

This particular asteroid moon is NOT a threat to Earth, but is technology being explored to use for when we DO find a potentially hazardous asteroid.

The Hubble Space Telescope captured these extraordinary views of the asteroid moon soon after the successful impact.
 

DART successful in changing orbit of Dimorphos and Didymos

Oct 11, 2022

The first results of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) indicate that the orbit of asteroid Dimorphos around asteroid Didymos was changed, altering the orbit of the binary asteroid system around the Sun.
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL)/Italian Space Agency (ASI)
First results of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART)
 

Dec 23, 2022

When natural disasters threaten, we turn to science and technology to warn us… to seek shelter or get out of the way. But can they face the ultimate threat: speeding projectiles from the depths of space? Cutting-edge space missions are underway to deflect and destroy space objects that threaten to rock our world. Can they save the planet from a killer asteroid?

topdocumentaryfilms.com/killer-asteroid-defending-earth
 
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NASA's DART mission сonfirms сrashing spacecraft into asteroids can deflect them

Mar 1, 2023

Since NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) successfully impacted its target on Sept. 26, 2022 – altering the orbit of the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos by a whopping 33 minutes – the DART team has determined that the mission's kinetic impactor technique can be an effective way to change the trajectory of an asteroid.

These findings were published in four papers in the journal Nature on March 1, 2023.

"NASA’s DART Data Validates Kinetic Impact as Planetary Defense Method"

March 1, 2023
 
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Hera launch

Oct 7, 2024

A SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle launched the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Hera mission to interplanetary transfer orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, on 7 October 2024, at 14:52 UTC (10:52 EDT). According to SpaceX, “due to the additional performance required to deliver the payload to an interplanetary transfer orbit, this mission marks the 23rd and final launch for this Falcon 9 first stage booster, which previously launched Crew-1, Crew-2, SXM-8, CRS-23, IXPE, Transporter-4, Transporter-5, Globalstar FM15, ISI EROS C-3, Korea 425, Maxar 1, ASBM, and 10 Starlink missions”.
 
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