DART
NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test — the first full-scale planetary-defense demonstration. The spacecraft deliberately crashed into Dimorphos, the small moon of asteroid Didymos, in 2022, measurably shortening its orbit and proving that a kinetic impactor can deflect an asteroid.
Imagery
DART Support for Hurricane Matthew
Roofing materials, blown loose by Hurricane Matthew, lie on the ground behind the Beach House at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
2016
NASA/Kennedy · NASA media (public domain)
This is the small-body-missions view of DART. See its main mission page for the full profile.
Targets & sample
Mission & science
- Goals
- Demonstrate asteroid deflection by kinetic impact and measure the resulting orbit change.
- Engineering milestones
- Impacted Dimorphos on 26 September 2022; the Italian LICIACube cubesat imaged the ejecta.
- Science discoveries
- Shortened Dimorphos's orbit around Didymos by about 32 minutes — far more than required, thanks to ejecta momentum.
- Outcome
- Complete success; the first demonstrated asteroid deflection.
Knowledge connections
- Operated byNASA
- Launched byFalcon 9
- Launched fromVandenberg Space Force Base
- Visited65803 Didymos
- VisitedDimorphos
- Member of groupImpactor Mission
- Visited65803 Didymos
- ImpactedDimorphos
- Associated withSurface Operations & Sampling
- Associated withAIDA
- Tracked byDeep Space Network (DSN)
- Associated withOptical Navigation
- Associated withDART Alters an Asteroid's Orbit
- Associated withFirst Planetary Defence Demonstration
- Associated withDeflection
- Associated withKinetic Impactor
Sources
The primary and reference sources this topic draws on.
- NASANational Aeronautics and Space Administration
Mission data, planetary science, space telescopes, and public-domain imagery.
Most NASA-produced imagery is in the public domain; individual items are checked for usage terms before publication.