Watch the Launch

Additional Media

Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) Mission

SpaceX is targeting Tuesday, November 23 for Falcon 9’s launch of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SL...

Watch NASA’s DART Mission Launch (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) Official Broadcast/Stream

Can we change the motion of an asteroid? Our #DARTMission is set to be the first to try! The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission is a spacecraft ...

Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART)

Circle Image

Overview

Destination: Heliocentric N/A
Mission: Robotic Exploration

Heliocentric N/A Space Launch Complex 4E Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA Probability: 90%
B1063 - Of Course I Still Love You

Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission is the first-ever mission to demonstrate the capability to deflect an asteroid by colliding a spacecraft with it at high speed, a technique known as a kinetic impactor. DART is a planetary defense-driven test of one of the technologies for preventing the Earth impact of a hazardous asteroid: the kinetic impactor. DART's primary objective is to demonstrate a kinetic impact on a small asteroid. The binary near-Earth asteroid (65803) Didymos is the target for DART. While Didymos' primary body is approximately 800 meters across, its secondary body has a 150-meter size, which is more typical of the size of asteroids that could pose a more common hazard to Earth. The DART spacecraft will achieve the kinetic impact by deliberately crashing itself into the moonlet at a speed of approximately 6 km/s, with the aid of an onboard camera and sophisticated autonomous navigation software. The collision will change the speed of the moonlet in its orbit around the main body by a fraction of one percent, enough to be measured using telescopes on Earth.

Updates

Cosmic_Penguin • Nov. 24, 2021, 9:39 a.m.

Launch success with DART solar panels deployed.


Nosu • Nov. 22, 2021, 10:29 p.m.

Weather 90%


Nosu • Oct. 4, 2021, 8:50 p.m.

Updating launch time per NASA media invitation


Nosu • July 28, 2021, 7:15 a.m.

Adding launch time


Falcon 9

Family:
Configuration: Block 5

Falcon 9 is a two-stage rocket designed and manufactured by SpaceX for the reliable and safe transport of satellites and the Dragon spacecraft into orbit. The Block 5 variant is the fifth major interval aimed at improving upon the ability for rapid reusability.

See Details
Specifications
  • Minimum Stage
    1
  • Max Stage
    2
  • Length
    70.0 m
  • Diameter
    3.65 m
  • Fairing Diameter
    5.2 m
  • Launch Mass
    549.0 T
  • Thrust
    7607.0 kN
Family
  • Name
    Falcon 9
  • Family
  • Variant
    Block 5
  • Alias
  • Full Name
    Falcon 9 Block 5
Payload Capacity
  • Launch Cost
    $52000000
  • Low Earth Orbit
    22800.0 kg
  • Geostationary Transfer Orbit
    8300.0 kg
  • Direct Geostationary
  • Sun-Synchronous Capacity

Booster Info


B1063

Status: Active


Type: Core
Flight Proven: Yes
First Flight: November 21, 2020
Last Flight: March 26, 2025
Flights: 24
Landings Attempted: 24
Landings Successful: 24
Previous B1063 Flights

Landing Information

B1063 has successfully landed on ASDS OCISLY after its third flight.

Result: Successful Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship landing at Of Course I Still Love You.

SpaceX

SpaceX

(SpX)

CEO: Elon Musk Founded: 2002 Successes: 484 Failures: 14 Pending: 119

Agency Type:

Space Exploration Technologies Corp., known as SpaceX, is an American aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by entrepreneur Elon Musk with the goal of reducing space transportation costs and enabling the colonization of Mars. SpaceX operates from many pads, on the East Coast of the US they operate from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and historic LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center. They also operate from SLC-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, usually for polar launches. Another launch site is being developed at Boca Chica, Texas.

INFO WIKI

Related News

ESA

Debris from DART impact could reach Earth

In 2022 NASA’s DART spacecraft made history, and changed the Solar System forever, by impacting the Dimorphos asteroid and measurably shifting its orbit around the larger Didymos asteroid. In the process a plume of debris was thrown out in…

NASASpaceflight

New study finds that DART changed both orbit and shape of Dimorphos asteroid

On Sept. 26, 2022, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft slammed into the side of the 170-meter-wide asteroid Dimorphos to test future asteroid deflection tactics in the event an asteroid was threatening Earth. Followin…

Spaceflight Now

NASA confirms DART probe impact changed asteroid’s orbit

The deliberate 14,000-mph crash of a small NASA probe into the asteroid Dimorphos two weeks ago nudged the 525-foot-wide body onto a slightly different course, NASA confirmed Tuesday, shaving 32 minutes off the time needed to complete one …

NASA

El impacto de DART cambió el movimiento de un asteroide en el espacio

El análisis de los datos obtenidos en las últimas dos semanas por el equipo de investigación de la Prueba de redireccionamiento del asteroide doble (DART, por sus siglas en inglés) de la NASA muestra que el impacto cinético de la nave espa…

NASA

NASA Confirms DART Mission Impact Changed Asteroid’s Motion in Space

Analysis of data obtained over the past two weeks by NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) investigation team shows the spacecraft's kinetic impact with its target asteroid, Dimorphos, successfully altered the asteroid’s orbit. Th…

Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

Space Launch Complex 4E


Falcon 9
In Flight
1 hour, 14 minutes ago
Starlink Group 12-23
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA

A batch of 23 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


Long March 3
Success
11 hours, 29 minutes ago
Tianlian 2-05
Launch Complex 2 (LC-2) - Xichang Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

Tianlian is a Chinese data tracking and relay communications geostationary satellite series. The TL 2 (Tian Lian 2) satellites represent the second g…


Falcon 9
Success
3 days, 1 hour ago
Starlink Group 6-74
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA

A batch of 28 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


Long March 2
Success
3 days, 18 hours ago
Shenzhou 20
Launch Area 4 (SLS-1 / 921) - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

Ninth crewed flight to the Chinese space station.


Falcon 9
Success
6 days, 2 hours ago
Bandwagon 3 (Dedicated Mid-Inclination Rideshare)
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA

Dedicated rideshare flight to a mid-inclination orbit with dozens of small microsatellites and nanosatellites for commercial and government customers.


Falcon 9
Success
6 days, 19 hours ago
Dragon CRS-2 SpX-32
Launch Complex 39A - Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA

32nd commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station operated by SpaceX. The flight will be conducted under the second Commer…


Falcon 9
Success
1 week ago
NROL-145
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

Tenth batch of satellites for a reconnaissance satellite constellation built by SpaceX and Northrop Grumman for the National Reconnaissance Office to…


Long March 6A
Success
1 week, 2 days ago
Shiyan 27 01-06
Launch Complex 9A - Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

A group of 6 Chinese satellites reported to be for "space environment probing and other related technological testing". Actual usage not known.


Minotaur IV
Success
1 week, 4 days ago
NROL-174
Space Launch Complex 8 - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

Classified payload for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office.


New Shepard
Success
1 week, 6 days ago
NS-31
West Texas Suborbital Launch Site/ Corn Ranch - Corn Ranch, Van Horn, TX, USA

NS-31 is the 11th crewed flight for the New Shepard program and the 31st in its history.