DART Asteroid Orbit Change Demonstrates Humanity’s First Planetary Defense Success
The DART asteroid orbit change mission demonstrated that humanity can successfully alter the motion of celestial bodies in space. After launching aboard a Falcon 9 rocket in 2021, NASA’s DART spacecraft intentionally impacted the asteroid Dimorphos in 2022, shortening its orbit around Didymos and slightly shifting the orbit of the entire asteroid system around the Sun. This historic experiment proved that the kinetic impactor method could be used as a viable planetary defense strategy to protect Earth from future asteroid threats.
