NASA says its asteroid defense test was a success

The mission to knock an asteroid off course was a success.

The Double Asteroid Redirection Test was conducted to see if it could change the trajectory of the spaceship.

The thing did.

The asteroid Dimorphos is about 7 million miles away from Earth. It takes 11 hours 55 minutes for Dimorphos to make a full circle.

Two weeks ago, the DART spacecraft made an impact, and the orbit has been shortened.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said that this is a big moment for defense. The mission shows that NASA is prepared for anything.

The test shows that if another asteroid appears in Earth's direction, scientists can push it off course.

The director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA said that for the first time in history, humanity has changed the path of a planetary body.

The story will be updated.