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


Falcon 9

Family: Falcon
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 Falcon Details
Specifications
  • Minimum Stage
    1
  • Max Stage
    2
  • Length
    70.0 m
  • Diameter
    3.65 m
  • Fairing Diameter
    5.2 m
  • Launch Mass
    549 T
  • Thrust
    7607 kN
Family
  • Name
    Falcon 9
  • Family
    Falcon
  • Variant
    Block 5
  • Alias
  • Full Name
    Falcon 9 Block 5
Payload Capacity
  • Launch Cost
    $52000000
  • Low Earth Orbit
    22800 kg
  • Geostationary Transfer Orbit
    8300 kg
  • Direct Geostationary
  • Sun-Synchronous Capacity

Booster Info


B1063

Status: Active


Type: Core
Flight Proven: Yes
First Flight: November 21, 2020
Last Flight: March 11, 2024
Flights: 17
Landings Attempted: 17
Landings Successful: 17
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

Circle Image
CEO: Elon Musk Founded: 2002 Successes: 341 Failures: 11 Pending: 136

Agency Type: Commercial

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

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…

SpaceNews

NASA’s DART spacecraft changes asteroid’s orbit

A NASA spacecraft that deliberately collided with a near Earth asteroid last month changed its orbital period by more than a half-hour, exceeding expectations for the planetary defense demonstration.

Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

Space Launch Complex 4E


Falcon 9
Success
4 days, 19 hours ago
Starlink Group 6-52
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral, FL, USA

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


Falcon 9
Success
5 days, 20 hours ago
Starlink Group 6-51
Launch Complex 39A - Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA

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


Long March 2D
Success
1 week, 1 day ago
SuperView Neo 3-01
Launch Area 4 (SLS-2 / 603) - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

Commercial Earth observation satellite built by CAST for China Siwei Survey and Mapping Technology Co. Ltd, with 0.5 m resolution over 9 image wavele…


Falcon 9
Success
1 week, 3 days ago
Starlink Group 6-49
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral, FL, USA

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


Falcon 9
Success
1 week, 5 days ago
USSF-62
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

First Weather System Follow-on (WSF) satellite. WSF-M (Weather System Follow-on - Microwave) is the next-generation operational environmental sate…


Angara A5/Blok DM-03
Success
1 week, 5 days ago
Vostochny Angara Test Flight
Cosmodrome Site 1A - Vostochny Cosmodrome, Siberia, Russian Federation

First test launch of the Angara A5 launch vehicle from the Vostochny Cosmodrome. The rocket will carry a mass simulator payload.


Falcon 9
Success
1 week, 6 days ago
Starlink Group 6-48
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral, FL, USA

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


Delta IV Heavy
Success
2 weeks ago
NROL-70
Space Launch Complex 37B - Cape Canaveral, FL, USA

Classified payload for the NRO. Last flight of the Delta IV Heavy rocket.


Falcon 9
Success
2 weeks, 1 day ago
Bandwagon 1 (Dedicated Mid-Inclination Rideshare)
Launch Complex 39A - Kennedy Space Center, 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
2 weeks, 2 days ago
Starlink Group 8-1
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

A batch of 21 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.