At 10:21 p.m. PST, on Nov. 23, 2021 NASA launched the first Mission to try to redirect an asteroid. The Mission is called The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission. The Asteroid Redirect Mission was intended to develop a robotic spacecraft to visit a large near-Earth asteroid and collect a multi-ton boulder from its surface. The asteroid Dimorphism was 7 Million Miles away before they redirected it. This experiment might just be one of the first steps to stop the end of the world. It’s a big deal for NASA to successfully redirect an asteroid.

How Did It Go?

The mission was successful. The DART hit Dimorphic and chipped a small piece off the asteroid and set it in another direction. The mission took 10 months. This is the world's first asteroid redirect mission and it was a full success. There are a variety of possible asteroid deflection techniques NASA could have done, but all need more development and testing. As REUTERS quote "NASA works for the benefit of humanity, so for us it’s the ultimate fulfillment of our mission to do something like this - a technology demonstration that, who knows, some day could save our home," NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy, a retired astronaut, said minutes after the impact.

What Next?

We’re still waiting for news about what happens next but We have heard some news about a new launch happening in October 2024. The European Space Agency is planning to launch Hera, a follow-up to DART that will take a close-up look at the effects of the impact on Dimorphous. Hera would arrive in late 2026. We Hope that everything will be successful in the near future. You never know if the earth wil be hit by an asteroid. Who knows? The world is full of Mysteries.