BOOM! NASA Conducts First Planetary Defense Test Mission

A spacecraft that was the size of a vending machine self-destructed a harmless asteroid shortly after 7 p.m. ET Monday. This high-speed crash was part of the U.S. space agency’s test dubbed as the Double Asteroid Redirection Test or DART. It is actually the first time in history that humans have attempted to alter the path of an asteroid. Let me tell you what an asteroid is. It is a flying chunk of rubble that was left over from the formation of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago. The interesting piece of info is that these ancient rocks pose no danger to Earth, including Dimorphos, the one NASA just boomed for target practice. However, at least three have caused mass extinctions in the past, the most infamous of which wiped out the dinosaurs.

Tom Statler, program scientist stated that:

“We are changing the motion of a natural celestial body in space. Humanity has never done that before. This was the substance of fiction books and really corny episodes of Star Trek from when I was a kid, and now it’s real.”

NASA broadcasted the $330 million carefully orchestrated collision that gave viewers a deer-in-headlights experience. Using a camera on the spacecraft, the team of scientists and engineers together with the general public, were able to watch it. The good part is that the first planetary defense exercise was successful. Mission managers further stated that the spacecraft was just 18.5 yards off from the dead center when it struck. However, DART was truly a triumph as it was able to shove the asteroid off its trajectory.

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