The spacecraft that NASA deliberately crashed into an asteroid last month succeeded in nudging the rocky moonlet out of its natural orbit—the first time humanity has altered the motion of a celestial body, NASA’s chief announced on Tuesday.
“This is a watershed moment for planetary defense and a watershed moment for humanity,” NASA chief Bill Nelson told reporters in announcing the results.
Findings of telescope observations unveiled at a NASA news briefing showed that the suicide test flight of the DART spacecraft on Sept. 26 achieved its primary objective: changing the direction of an asteroid through sheer kinetic force.
The $330 million proof-of-concept DART mission, which was seven years in development, also marked the world’s first test of a planetary defense system designed to prevent a potential doomsday meteorite collision with Earth….