VANDENBERG SPACE FORCE BASE, Calif.– NASA has actually introduced its first planetary defense mission to practice what the agency may do if world Earth were threatened by a wayward asteroid.The firms Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission introduced at 10:20 p.m. regional time on Tuesday night, Nov. 23 (1:20 a.m. EDT, or 0620 GMT Nov. 24) from Space Launch Complex 4 here at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. DART required to the skies atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, set to take a trip millions of miles out to smash into an asteroid in a planetary defense test. “Liftoff of the Falcon 9 and DART on NASAs very first planetary defense test to purposefully crash into an asteroid,” NASA spokesperson Marie Lewis said during a live broadcast of the launch.Related: NASAs DART asteroid-impact objective explained in picturesImage 1 of 9NASAs Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, releases atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, at 1:21 a.m. EST (0621 GMT) on Nov. 24, 2021. (Image credit: Bill Ingalls/NASA)Image 2 of 9A view from the Falcon 9 rocket 23 seconds after liftoff. (Image credit: SpaceX/NASA TELEVISION)Image 3 of 9A screenshot from NASA televisions webcast of the launch of the firms Double Asteroid Redirection Test. (Image credit: SpaceX/NASA TELEVISION)Image 4 of 9A screenshot from NASA televisions webcast of the launch of the firms Double Asteroid Redirection Test. (Image credit: SpaceX/NASA TV)Image 5 of 9A screenshot from NASA TVs webcast of the launch of the firms Double Asteroid Redirection Test. (Image credit: SpaceX/NASA TV)Image 6 of 9The Falcon 9 booster arrived at SpaceXs drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You.” (Image credit: SpaceX/NASA TV)Image 7 of 9The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft onboard is seen during daybreak at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, on Nov. 23, 2021. (Image credit: Bill Ingalls/NASA)Image 8 of 9The Falcon 9 rocket with DART all set to introduce Nov. 23, 2021 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. (Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)Image 9 of 9The DART spacecraft as seen inside a cleanroom prior to flight. (Image credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman)Nearly nine minutes after liftoff, the SpaceX Falcon 9 booster went back to Earth, nailing an upright landing on the businesss drone ship called “Of Course I Still Love You,” which was stationed in the Pacific Ocean. The landing at sea marked the 95th time that SpaceX has actually recuperated an orbital class rocket booster.DART is now on its way to conduct a planetary defense test. The mission will utilize a “kinetic effect strategy,” to alter the orbit of an asteroid. In other words, the spacecraft will smash into an area rock to alter its direction. DART will impact a “moonlet” called Dimorphos that orbits around a much larger asteroid Didymos and the objective teams intends to shorten its orbit around Dimorphos by a number of minutes. An artists representation of the DART spacecraft approaching the Didymos system. (Image credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben)”Its an intentional crash of a spacecraft into a rock,” Thomas Zurbuchen, NASAs associate administrator for the science objective directorate stated during a news conference on Monday (Nov. 22). “What were attempting to find out is how to deflect a danger.”Now, neither the asteroid nor its moonlet poses any danger of making their way toward Earth (even if the test doesnt go precisely as prepared), experts have actually informed Space.com. This asteroid system “has no chance of affecting the Earth whatsoever,” astronomer Amy Mainzer, who is the principal detective of NASAs Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) mission and who specializes in identifying populations of asteroids and comets, informed Space.com.Its “an exceptionally not likely scenario,” Mainzer stated. There is the possibility that one day there might be an asteroid that poses severe risk to Earth and its inhabitants. This test will reveal NASA how a kinetic impact strategy may work versus an asteroid that does pose a danger. If in the future, a large asteroid were determined that threatened Earth in some way, NASA might theoretically send out a spacecraft like DART to smash into it and press it in a different direction.Right now, no such threatening asteroid is known. As both Zurbuchen and Mainzer pointed out, scientists have actually only categorized about 40% of all near-Earth things. Now, researchers have actually cataloged approximately 90% of all near-Earth asteroids that are as large as the space rock that erased Earths big dinosaurs millions of years back, Cristina Thomas, a DART Observations Working Group Lead, told Space.com. There stay numerous smaller sized space rocks that have yet to be recognized. The key aspect of safeguarding planet Earth versus rogue space rocks is time. Email Chelsea Gohd at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @chelsea_gohd. 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(Image credit: SpaceX/NASA TELEVISION)Image 3 of 9A screenshot from NASA TVs webcast of the launch of the companys Double Asteroid Redirection Test. (Image credit: SpaceX/NASA TELEVISION)Image 4 of 9A screenshot from NASA Televisions webcast of the launch of the agencys Double Asteroid Redirection Test. (Image credit: SpaceX/NASA TELEVISION)Image 5 of 9A screenshot from NASA TVs webcast of the launch of the firms Double Asteroid Redirection Test. (Image credit: SpaceX/NASA TV)Image 7 of 9The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft onboard is seen throughout dawn at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, on Nov. 23, 2021. If in the future, a big asteroid were recognized that threatened Earth in some method, NASA might theoretically send out a spacecraft like DART to smash into it and press it in a various direction.Right now, no such threatening asteroid is understood.
