DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) is NASA’s first planetary defense test mission, and will be the first-ever space mission to demonstrate asteroid deflection by kinetic impactor – impacting an asteroid to adjust its speed and path.
On September 26, DART will intentionally crash into Dimorphos, the asteroid moonlet of Didymos, to slightly change its motion in space. While the asteroid does not pose any threat to Earth, the DART mission will demonstrate that a spacecraft can autonomously navigate to a kinetic impact on a relatively small asteroid and prove this is a viable technique to deflect an asteroid on a collision course with Earth if one is ever discovered.
Johns Hopkins APL manages the DART mission for NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office as a project of the agency’s Planetary Missions Program Office.
