NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test spacecraft ( DART )

DART was intentionally smashed into the asteroid Dimorphos this past Monday, September 26th, after a 10 month journey to track and intercept the asteroid. The mission, which was launched in November last year, demonstrates a way for humanity to protect itself from asteroids. While Dimorphos itself had not been on course to crash into Earth, the mission demonstrates NASA’s ability to deflect similar asteroids in the future. NASA administrator Bill Nelson called the mission an “unprecedented success for planetary defense.”The next step is to study the asteroid using telescopes on Earth to confirm that DART’s impact altered the its orbit. Cool Science Radio will continue to monitor the DART program. This is the livestream video of DART’s final seconds before crashing into Dimorphos 6.8 million miles away.