--- title: "Red Alert! NASA Is About to Test Deflecting a Killer Asteroid" description: "NASA's first test of a planetary defense system — developed to deflect Earth-threatening asteroids or comets — is slated for launch in late September." date: "2022-08-28" modified: "2022-08-28" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-test-deflecting-asteroid" categories: - "NASA" - "Space" tags: - "asteroid collision" - "asteroid deflection" - "planetary de" - "the digest" --- # Red Alert! NASA Is About to Test Deflecting a Killer Asteroid ![NASA's first test of a planetary defense system — developed to deflect Earth-threatening asteroids or comets — is slated for launch in late September.]() *\Image: NASA\* ## Testing, Testing Take that, space rocks! NASA has announced that its first and long-awaited planetary defense test mission — which, yes, will trial a system developed to deflect potentially Earth-threatening asteroids or comets — is slated to smash into an unlucky asteroid next month, in September. The mission, dubbed the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), will be the first ever to test whether a high-speed impact could nudge a killer asteroid off course before it hits our planet. But don't worry — the asteroid Dimorphos "[poses no threat to Earth]()," a detail that the agency has been almost comically careful to hammer into all its marketing materials. ## Moonlet Night Interestingly, DART is actually being sent to [two off-world rockos](): asteroid Didymos, which clocks in at roughly a half mile in diameter, and its smaller, orbital moonlet, Dimorphos. And while the duo — technically called a binary asteroid system — currently present no threat to our planet (which, again, NASA *really* wants you to know), they're plausible targets because they *have* come pretty close to us before. Despite its adorable name and smaller stature, NASA intends for DART to crash into Dimorphos — the agency believes that they'll be able to more easily measure DART's efficacy by [targeting the moonlet](), as they can measure any changes in the smaller body's orbit around Didymos from here on Earth. ## RIP(ish) If all goes to plan, the craft will collide with the moonlet at a cool [15,000 miles per hour](). And as [*CBS News* points out](), the mission, unlike the film "Armegeddon," isn't to destroy the celestial body. Dimorphos won't be blown up... just, uh, dented. Maybe. And hopefully nudged off course. "This test will show a spacecraft can autonomously navigate to a target asteroid and intentionally collide with it to change the asteroid’s motion in a way that can be measured using ground-based telescopes," reads NASA's press release. "DART will provide important data to help better prepare for an asteroid that might pose an impact hazard to Earth, should one ever be discovered." **READ MORE:** *[How to watch as NASA sends a spacecraft to deliberately crash into a 525-foot-wide asteroid at 15,000 mph]()* (*CBS News*) **More on asteroids:** *[Asteroid's Surface like a "Plastic Ball Pit," Scientists Find]()* ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()