NASA Spacecraft set to Intentionally Crash into an Asteroid

The space agency has planned to test a planetary-defense strategy that might protect Earth using a spaceship. The DART spacecraft will hit the asteroid not far from Earth like a battering ram. The main plan behind the mission is to guard our planet from asteroid crashes. DART will conduct three trajectory correction procedures over the upcoming three weeks to catch up with the asteroid, which will now be 10 months away.

According to NASA, following the final maneuver on September 25, which will occur around 24 hours before impact, the navigation team will be able to pinpoint Dimorphos’ location to within two kilometers. After that, DART will be left alone to steer itself toward a collision with the unusual space rock. DART has recently made its initial observations of the double-asteroid system Didymos, which contains the object that it is trying to find, Dimorphos.

An image of the Didymos system acquired at a distance of 20 million kilometers showed it to be fairly dim. However, astronomers were able to precisely find Dimorphos by merging a number of images. If DART travels at its intended 15,000 mph speed and collides with Dimorphos, it will put the kinetic impactor Earth defense theory to the test. According to trusted source of information, the NASA has given five more astronaut missions to Elon Musk’s SpaceX company. This new contract will cost SpaceX an additional $1.4 billion.