NASA Is Firing A Spacecraft At An Asteroid And You Can Watch It Live

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NEOS are Near-Earth Objects that orbit the Sun in our solar system, but they can pose a risk to Earth.

They are objects that come within 30 million miles of Earth’s orbit, and most are typically larger than a small football stadium. Good news is NASA has prepared to protect the planet.

NASA created the Planetary Defense Coordination Office in 2016 to find NEO’s and warn when they approach. The PDCO is preparing to make its first-ever attempt to deflect an asteroid and change its path in space a kinetic impact.

During that mission, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), NASA will also launch an autonomous spacecraft at an asteroid to change its course. Flying into space with DART is a ride-along CubeSat, LICIACube, that will separate before DART’s impact to record the collision.

NASA will be streaming live coverage of DART colliding with Dimorphous on its social media accounts at 6PM E.T. on September 26.

Impact is expected at 7:14PM E.T. and it will be launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force in California.