Launch of Double Asteroid Redirection Test

The Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, was a NASA mission that tested whether a spacecraft could change the path of an asteroid by hitting it, as a method of planetary defence. It was launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and aimed at Dimorphos, the small moon of the asteroid Didymos, which was not a threat to Earth. In autumn 2022, the spacecraft hit Dimorphos at high speed, and telescopes on Earth observed the change in its orbit around Didymos, which was shortened by more than half an hour, far more than the minimum required for success. An Italian cubesat, LICIACube, photographed the aftermath, and the European Hera mission was sent later to study the result in detail.

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