NASA DART mission Animation

The concept is simple: Slam one or more spacecraft into the asteroid at high speed to change its orbit and move Earth out of the crosshairs . This technique works particularly well if used far in advance, since small nudges can add up to big changes later on.

At 1:21 a.m. EST on November 24, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission was launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. In the ensuing few hours, the spacecraft established communication with mission operators and successfully unfurled its solar arrays .

Here are some specifics about the DART spacecraft: Cost: $308 million . Weight: 1,345 pounds (610 kilograms) at launch / 1,210 (550 kg) pounds at impact.

NASA’s DART Mission Will Launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket Its first stage uses rocket-grade kerosene and liquid oxygen, while the second stage uses liquid oxygen. The Falcon 9 can lift payloads of up to 50,300 pounds to low-Earth orbit, and 18,300 pounds to geostationary transfer orbit, or GTO.