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Tonight, NASA will launch a mission to crash into an asteroid and you can watch it lift off live online.
The Double Asteroid Redirection Test will travel millions of miles out into the solar stem to smash into an asteroid and practice in the event of a rogue Earth-bound asteroid. The mission is scheduled to lift off at 1:20 a.m. on Wednesday, November 24. The time is 10:00 p.m. On Nov. 23/0620
Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA's associate administrator for the science mission directorate, said during a pre-launch presser that it was an intentional crash of a spacecraft into a rock. We're trying to learn how to ignore a threat.
You can watch the launch live at Space.com or NASA TV. The agency's live coverage will start at 12:30 a.m. On Nov. 24.
NASA's DART asteroid-impact mission is explained in pictures.
The DART spacecraft and the Falcon 9 rocket are seen before launch. The image is from NASA/Bill Ingalls.
"We're all go, there's no holdbacks, there's no risks going forward, and we look forward to tomorrow," said the senior launch director at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.
The DART team will be arriving on Monday night to begin final preparations for the launch.
The launch of DART will take place at exactly 10:20 pm and two seconds local time, but there is only a one second instantaneous launch window before it is pushed to the next available launch date.
While November forecasts are more prone to fronts, and there is actually a front approaching the base, it happens to align where it is favorable for the launch.
The weather forecast is not perfect, but the team is optimistic.
Smashing into an asteroid.
An artist's depiction of a DART craft. Steve Gribben is a NASA/JohnsHopkins APL employee.
DART will travel to a two-asteroid system that includes a small "moonlet" asteroid named Dimorphos that is in close proximity to a larger asteroid called Didymos.
Depending on where it is in its path around the sun, these two space rocks could be anywhere from 10 to 493 million miles away from Earth. Experts have reassured the public that no asteroid in this system poses a threat to Earth.
Dimorphos is DART's target. The mission will test a planetary defense strategy. The craft will collide with the moonlet, pushing it around Didymos. The mission wants to shorten the moonlet's time around Didymos.
Members of the mission team on Earth will be using telescopes to study the pair of space rocks.
The test won't make Earth safer because the asteroids don't pose a threat. It will be important to prove that this type of planetary defense strategy works. If a rogue asteroid were to be on a trajectory that would pose a risk to Earth, NASA could theoretically use DART to destroy it.
There are no large asteroids currently posing a risk of hurtling toward Earth, but this asteroid system is a perfect testing ground to see if crashing a spaceship into an asteroid is an effective way to change its course.
Zurbuchen told Space.com during the news conference that there are no threats to Earth at the moment. With the success of this mission, he is interested to see how we're going to take that technology and move forward.
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