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SPACE SCIENCE

NASA’s DART mission hits asteroid in

first-ever planetary defence test

Keeping the world safe from asteroids

fter ten months flying
in space, NASA’s double
Aasteroid redirection test
(DART) – the world’s first planetary
defence technology demonstration
– successfully impacted its asteroid
target on Monday 26 September 2022,
the agency’s first attempt to move an
asteroid in space.
Mission control at the Johns
Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
(APL) in Laurel, Maryland, announced
the successful impact at 01.14 SAST
on Tuesday as part of NASA’s overall
planetary defence strategy. DART’s
impact with the asteroid Dimorphos
demonstrates a viable mitigation
technique for protecting the planet
from an Earth-bound asteroid or
comet, if one were to be discovered.
“At its core, DART represents an
unprecedented success for planetary
defence, but it is also a mission
of unity with a real benefit for all
humanity,” said NASA administrator The last complete image of asteroid moonlet Dimorphos, taken by the DRACO imager on NASA’s
Bill Nelson. “As NASA studies the DART mission, 12 kilometres from the asteroid and two seconds before impact. The image shows a
cosmos and our home planet, we’re patch of the asteroid that is 31 meters across. Dimorphs’ north is towards the top of the image.
also working to protect that home,
and this international collaboration
turned science fiction into science fact,
demonstrating one way to protect
Earth.”
DART targeted the asteroid
moonlet Dimorphos, a small body
just 160 metres in diameter. It orbits
a larger, 780-metre asteroid called
Didymos. Neither asteroid poses a
threat to Earth.
The mission’s one-way trip
confirmed NASA can successfully
navigate a spacecraft to intentionally
collide with an asteroid to deflect it, a
technique known as kinetic impact. Illustration of NASA’s DART space craft and the Italian Space Agency’s (ASI) LICIACube prior to impact
The investigation team will now at the Didymos binary system.

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