---
title: "NASA Asks SpaceX to Help It Save Earth From Incoming Asteroids"
description: "SpaceX will provide launch services for NASA's DART mission, which is designed to test a plan for preventing an asteroid from hitting Earth."
date: "2019-04-12"
modified: "2019-04-12"
authors:
  - name: "Kristin Houser"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/kristin.md"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasas-dart-spacex-incoming-asteroids"
categories:
  - "NASA"
  - "Space"
  - "SpaceX"
tags:
  - "asteroid"
  - "dart"
  - "NASA"
  - "SpaceX"
  - "the digest"
---

# NASA Asks SpaceX to Help It Save Earth From Incoming Asteroids

![SpaceX will provide launch services for NASA's DART mission, which is designed to test a plan for preventing an asteroid from hitting Earth.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/nasas-dart-spacex-incoming-asteroids.png>)
*\<em\>Image: Logikal via Pixabay/Tag Hartman-Simkins\</em\>*

## Space Besties

NASA has a plan to defend Earth from an incoming asteroid — and it's now tapped SpaceX to help carry it out.

On Friday, NASA [announced](<https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nasa-awards-launch-services-contract-for-asteroid-redirect-test-mission-300831286.html>) that it had selected Elon Musk's SpaceX to provide launch services for its $69 million [Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART)](<https://futurism.com/planetary-defense-nasa-asteroid.md>) mission — adding to the [ever-growing list](<https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacex/>) of collaborations between the two entities.

https://youtu.be/aNSYuY6N1Rs

## Collision Course

NASA's DART mission will launch aboard a Falcon 9 rocket in California in June 2021. The goal is to smash a satellite into the Didymos asteroid's small moon in October 2022.

If all goes according to plan, the collision will change the asteroid's motion, and NASA will be able to use what it learns from the mission to redirect a future asteroid on track to impact Earth, saving humanity from potential extinction à la the dinosaurs.

**READ MORE:** [SpaceX will assist NASA's first-ever mission to redirect an asteroid](<https://www.engadget.com/2019/04/12/spacex-nasa-mission-redirect-asteroid/>) \[*Engadget*\]

**More on NASA's DART mission:** *[NASA Scientist: Asteroid Deflection Mission Not Like "Armageddon"](<https://futurism.com/planetary-defense-nasa-asteroid.md>)*

### Author social links  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinjhouser>)

## More

- [Remember That Asteroid NASA Deflected in a Test of Saving Earth? We Have Bad News](<https://futurism.com/asteroid-nasa-dart-unexpected.md>)
- [NASA Slams Spacecraft Into Asteroid to Test Earth Saving Tech](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-slams-spacecraft-slams-into-asteroid-to-test-earth-saving-tech.md>)
- [NASA Says Its Test of Asteroid Deflection Tech Was Wildly Successful](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-asteroid-deflection-successful.md>)
- [NASA is Moving Forward With Its Plan to Deflect an Asteroid From Earth](<https://futurism.com/nasa-is-moving-forward-with-its-plan-to-deflect-an-asteroid-from-earth.md>)
- [NASA Intrigued by Asteroid That Seems to Be Shooting Rocks Into Space](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-intrigued-asteroid-shooting-rocks-into-space.md>)
- [Debris From NASA Smashing Asteroid Could Strike Mars, Scientists Find](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/debris-nasa-smashing-asteroid-strike-mars.md>)
- [How to Watch NASA Slam a Battering Ram Into an Asteroid at 17,000 Miles Per Hour](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/watch-live-nasa-dart-slam-asteroid.md>)
- [Debris From When NASA Smashed Asteroid Appears to Be Headed Back Toward Earth](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/debris-asteroid-earth-nasa.md>)