NASA spacecraft will slam into asteroid in first planetary-defence test

NASA will slam a multimillion-dollar spacecraft into an asteroid to test whether it is possible to change a space rock’s trajectory. This is only a test — the asteroid, Dimorphos, is not a threat to Earth. If the mission launches successfully next week, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft will hit Dimorphos at 6.6 kilometres per second late next year. The impact should shrink Dimorphos’s orbit so that it orbits its companion asteroid at least 73 seconds faster than before — a change that will be detectable from Earth. A tiny probe funded by the Italian Space Agency will be launched from DART and will fly past to photograph the aftermath.