flown missionSuccess

Falcon 9 Block 5 | Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART)

SpaceXSpace Launch Complex 4E — Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

The launch vehicle successfully inserted its payload(s) into the target orbit(s).

mission

Name
Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART)
Type
Robotic Exploration
Target orbit
Heliocentric N/A (Helio-N/A)
Weather probability
90% go

Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission is the first-ever mission to demonstrate the capability to deflect an asteroid by colliding a spacecraft with it at high speed, a technique known as a kinetic impactor. DART is a planetary defense-driven test of one of the technologies for preventing the Earth impact of a hazardous asteroid: the kinetic impactor. DART's primary objective is to demonstrate a kinetic impact on a small asteroid. The binary near-Earth asteroid (65803) Didymos is the target for DART. While Didymos' primary body is approximately 800 meters across, its secondary body has a 150-meter size, which is more typical of the size of asteroids that could pose a more common hazard to Earth. The DART spacecraft will achieve the kinetic impact by deliberately crashing itself into the moonlet at a speed of approximately 6 km/s, with the aid of an onboard camera and sophisticated autonomous navigation software. The collision will change the speed of the moonlet in its orbit around the main body by a fraction of one percent, enough to be measured using telescopes on Earth.

schedule

NET (no earlier than)
Window opens
Window closes
Last updated

vehicle & provider

Rocket
Falcon 9 Block 5
Family
Falcon
Variant
Block 5
Provider
SpaceX
Type
Commercial
Country
USA

webcasts

launch site

Pad
Space Launch Complex 4E
Location
Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA
Country
USA
Timezone
America/Los_Angeles