Double Asteroid Redirection Test

The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) was a NASA space mission that aimed to test a method of planetary defense against near-Earth objects by assessing how much a spacecraft impact deflects an asteroid through momentum transfer. Launched on November 24, 2021, the DART spacecraft successfully collided with the asteroid moon Dimorphos on September 26, 2022, shortening its orbit by 32 minutes, well beyond the expected threshold of 73 seconds. The mission was a joint project between NASA and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, and was funded through NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office. The DART spacecraft, which was an impactor with a mass of 610 kilograms, hosted no scientific payload and had sensors only for navigation. The mission was a key step in developing a method for deflecting potentially hazardous asteroids and was a collaboration with other international partners, including the European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.learn more on wikipedia