NASA Is Getting Ready to Smash a Spacecraft Into an Asteroid

NASA Is Getting Ready to Smash a Spacecraft Into an Asteroid

NASA Is Getting Ready, to Smash a Spacecraft, Into an Asteroid .

On September 26, NASA will intentionally slam a golf cart-sized spacecraft into a tiny asteroid.

At the time of impact, the bullet-like spacecraft will be traveling at 14,000 miles per hour.

At the time of impact, the bullet-like spacecraft will be traveling at 14,000 miles per hour.

'Business Insider' reports that the mission is humanity's first test of our ability to deflect dangerous asteroids.

Currently, NASA is aware of the location and orbit of about 28,000 local asteroids.

In November 2021, NASA launched the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

The $308 million spacecraft has since traveled 6.8 million miles to reach Dimorphos, a small asteroid that orbits a larger asteroid, Didymos.

DART's mission is to nudge the space rock into a slightly tighter orbit around its companion asteroid.

I'm highly confident that we are going to hit on Monday and that there will be a complete success, Lindley Johnson, NASA's first planetary defense officer, via 'Business Insider'.

DART's Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation (DRACO) will capture one image per second to document the impact.

We are excited for what DRACO will reveal about Didymos and Dimorphos in the hours and minutes leading up to impact, Carolyn Ernst, DRACO instrument scientist at APL, via 'Business Insider'.

NASA will livestream the images captured by the spacecraft on its website beginning at 5:30 p.m.

ET on September 26.