NASA To Crash Spacecraft Into Asteroid, Testing Earth's Planetary <Defenses - Jellyfish.NEWS

Asteroids orbit the Sun and sometimes come close to Earth. When these space rocks come within 30 million miles of Earth, NASA calls them Near-Earth objects (NEOs). On Nov. 23, the space agency plans to launch a spacecraft into Earth’s orbit that will eventually slam into an asteroid about a year from now, hoping to alter the space rock’s course.

NASA is currently making launch preparations for the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft to be catapulted into Earth’s orbit via a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Nov. 23.

NASA’s Planetary Defense Officer Lindley Johnson wrote in a press release