The US space agency’s mission will see the DART spacecraft blasted into space atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base.
DART’s target will be the two-asteroid system Didymos, which does not currently pose a threat to Earth. The spacecraft isn’t expected to reach the binary system until late September or October in 2022.
If successful, the mission will see the expansion of a NASA planetary defense arsenal.
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