Time Since DART's Impact
on September 26, 2022, 7:14 p.m. EDT (23:14:24.183 UTC)
NASA's first planetary
defense test mission
Time since DART's impact
on September 26, 2022, 7:14 p.m. EDT (23:14:24.183 UTC)
Impactor Spacecraft
Planetary Defense
Become a
Planetary Defender
DART, NASA's First Planetary Defense Test Mission
NASA's first test mission for planetary defense, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) seeks to test and validate a method to protect Earth in case of an asteroid impact threat. The DART mission shifted an asteroid's orbit through kinetic impact – specifically, by successfully smashing a spacecraft into the smaller member of the binary asteroid system Didymos.
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