The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) intends to test the Earth's protection system from potentially dangerous asteroids for the first time.
According to the representative of the American space department Joshua Handal, NASA plans to launch a rocket with a special probe to one of these objects in November 2021, which in late September – early October 2022 will have to collide with an asteroid and change its orbit. Writes about this TASS.
It is noted that the launch of SpaceX's Falcon 9 launch vehicle with a DART probe (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) will take place from the Vandenberg Space Force base in California. It is slated for November 24th.
The DART apparatus is supposed to separate from the rocket and head towards the double asteroid Didim-Dimorf.
– The collision of the probe with Dimorph should take place between September 26 and October 2, 2022, – explained Handal.
Earlier it was reported how a large asteroid will approach the surface of our planet in February. The size of a space object could be compared to the size of a stadium. Asteroid 2020 XU6 with a diameter of about 213 meters will approach the Earth at a distance of about four million kilometers.
