# @nasa on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/CWqhwUQp0Af
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/11733145-nasa-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/thumbnails/87ec8d6264.jpg
- **Posted:** 2021-11-24T15:59:12.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** NASA (@NASA) — https://gondola.cc/NASA

## Caption

🚀 We're on our way to nudge an asteroid!

Our DART spacecraft lifted off at 1:21 a.m. EST (6:21 UTC) this morning, beginning its 10-month journey to the small "moonlet" Dimorphos. Late next year, the vending machine-sized ship will smash into Dimorphos at more than 15,000 miles an hour (24,000 kph), altering its orbit very slightly around the larger asteroid Didymos.

Dimorphos does not pose a threat to Earth, either before or after DART's impact, but the data we collect from DART's collision will help us design spacecraft to deflect any future asteroids or near-Earth objects that ever threaten our home planet. Designed by JohnsHopkinsAPL, DART lifted off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg_SFB in California.

Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

#DARTMission #PlanetaryDefense #NASA #Space #SpaceX #Rocket #RocketLaunch #DontWannaMissAThing

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## Tags

dartmission, nasa, rocket, space, dontwannamissathing, spacex, rocketlaunch, planetarydefense

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