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Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) Mission

On Tuesday, November 23 at 10:21 p.m. PST, Falcon 9 launched NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission to an interplanetary transfer orbit from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Van...

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 designed to impact an asteroid as a test of...

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
  • Stages
    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: February 21, 2026
Flights: 31
Landings Attempted: 31
Landings Successful: 31
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: 646 Failures: 15 Pending: 121

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

NASA

NASA’s DART Mission Changed Orbit of Asteroid Didymos Around Sun

New research reveals that when NASA’s DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft intentionally impacted the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos in September 2022, it didn’t just change the motion of Dimorphos around its larger companion, Di…

NASA

Close-Up Views of NASA’s DART Impact to Inform Planetary Defense

On Sept. 11, 2022, engineers at a flight control center in Turin, Italy, sent a radio signal into deep space. Its destination was NASA’s DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft flying toward an asteroid more than 5 million miles…

NASASpaceflight

Hera observes asteroids as DART reveals more about its destination

Travelling through the asteroid belt, the European Space Agency’s Hera spacecraft has taken its first… The post Hera observes asteroids as DART reveals more about its destination appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com.

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…

Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

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