NASA’s DART spacecraft is on track to smash into an asteroid as part of a planetary defense test. The Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, is scheduled to make impact with Dimorphos on September 26th, 2022, at 6:14 pm CDT.
NASA will provide a live broadcast of the event beginning at 5 pm CDT on NASA TV, NASA LIVE, and its social media channels. A live feed from the spacecraft’s DRACO camera will be broadcast at 4:30 pm CDT on YouTube.
DART launched on November 24, 2021, at 12:21 a.m. CST on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenburg Space Force Base in California. Now, ten months later, DART has reached its target, a binary asteroid system named Didymos.
The DART mission is just a test, but a vital test in terms of future planetary defense. By crashing into Dimorphus, the smaller of the two asteroids in the binary system, DART will attempt to redirect the asteroid, changing its orbital speed and path. The Didymos system is not a threat to Earth, but it makes a great target for this mission because on Earth telescopes can detect and measure any of these orbital changes when Dimorphus goes past Didymos, eclipsing it.
The Planetary Defense Coordination Office was established in 2016 to manage ongoing planetary defense missions for NASA and is leading the DART mission alongside the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.
NASA invites the public to support the mission and become a Planetary Defender. Learn more about the mission, earn a certificate and badge, and follow along on social media with #DARTMission and #PlanetaryDefender.
