SpaceX is Launching a Spacecraft To Crash Into an Asteroid

Imagine this: you wake up in the morning, make yourself some coffee, maybe grill a piece of toast – just your regular morning, right? But then you check the latest news on your phone: NASA, with the help of SpaceX, are launching a rocket to space with the purpose of hitting and changing the trajectory of an asteroid.

This is not a scene from the latest sci-fi flick. SpaceX is launching a planetary defense mission for NASA on November 24th from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. No need to worry, though, as NASA associate administrator of the science mission directorate Thomas Zurbuchen has promised the public: “Rest assured, that rock right now is not a threat”. The DART mission, short for the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, is designed to observe and learn if and how a trajectory of an asteroid could be altered when impacted by a spacecraft.

The spacecraft weighs 610 kilograms and will travel 10 months towards two asteroids – Didymos and Dimorphos. The idea is to hit the smaller asteroid, Dimorphos, at speed in excess of 24,000 kilometers an hour. To observe the impact and the possible change in trajectory, the DART spacecraft will release a small cube satellite to take photos and collect data.

The spacecraft was built by the John Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland, with the help of Redwire space company in developing the navigation systems and solar paneling to power it. The DART mission is costing NASA around $330 million, with $69 million going to SpaceX for helping with the launch of the spacecraft.

SpaceX director of civil satellite missions Julianna Scheiman had this to say: “This is just the coolest mission. Thank you all for enabling SpaceX to be a part of a really important planetary defense mission”.

The size of the targeted asteroid – Dimorphos is about that of the Great Pyramid of Giza, while Didymos is wider than the World Trade Center tower in New York City was tall.

While this mission is one of the first planetary defense missions by NASA, Zurbuchen has emphasized that there are no near-term asteroid strike-related risks to Earth.