VIDEO NASA crashed spacecraft into asteroid, then released collision footage

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - NASA successfully crashed the DART spacecraft into an asteroid late last night. It was a historic mission as it was the "first planetary defense test" for Earth against a potential impact by deflecting it from its path.

The final moments before the collision were captured by the spacecraft's camera, with the last image taken two seconds before impact.

The mission's goal is to protect Earth from a potential collision with a NEO - which is NASA's term for a near-Earth object - an asteroid or comet - that could approach its orbit.

DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) is the first mission to attempt to deflect a dangerous object from its path in a direct experiment to prevent its impact on planet Earth, said space mission director Thomas Zurbuchen.

 

Early Threat Detection Program

In 2016, NASA established the Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) for early detection of large NEO threats - at least 30 to 50 meters in size - that could damage Earth's surface and for tracking the trajectories of these objects.

Astronomers currently do not know if any NEO poses a threat to Earth, but an asteroid about 66 million years ago left a huge crater on the Mexican Yucatan Peninsula and may have caused the extinction of dinosaurs.

The DART spacecraft weighs 610 kilograms and measures 1.8 x 2.6 meters. It was launched in November 2021 from California by SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. It collided with the asteroid Dimorphos at a speed of 6.6 kilometers per second.

Dimorphos is about 160 meters in diameter and orbits a larger asteroid, Didymos, like a moon. DART's cameras will capture the asteroid only about 90 minutes before the planned impact.