NASA spacecraft to test asteroid defence concept

NASA's mission to smash a spacecraft into an asteroid to test if it can be knocked off course is speeding ahead. The DART spacecraft, short for Double Asteroid Redirection Test, lifted off as part of a project to determine if Earth could be saved from rocks from space.

Source: NASA

The DART spacecraft is looking to slam head on into Dimorphos, an asteroid, at 15,000 miles per hour, next September; a project at the crossroads of science fiction and reality.  Scientists constantly search for asteroids and plot their courses to determine whether they could hit the planet. The DART technique could prove useful for altering the course of an asteroid years or decades before it bears down on Earth with the potential for catastrophe.