# @nasa on Instagram

- **Type:** Video
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/CVbMVeaDrE5
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/11733199-nasa-instagram
- **Posted:** 2021-10-24T20:40:00.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** NASA (@NASA) — https://gondola.cc/NASA

## Caption

Behind the Spacecraft: NASA's DART, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test⁣
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We're crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid... on purpose!⁣
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Our #DARTmission is a first-of-its-kind #PlanetaryDefense test to change the motion of an asteroid in space so that we could use this technique if an asteroid were ever discovered to be a threat to Earth. (There are no known threats.)⁣
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The DART, or Double Asteroid Redirection Test, mission is a test of a technique that could be used to mitigate the threat of an asteroid on a collision course with Earth, should one be discovered in the future. DART’s target is not a threat to Earth. While no known asteroid larger than 140 meters in size has a significant chance to hit Earth for the next 100 years, only about 40 percent of those asteroids have been found as of October 2021.⁣
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DART is targeted to launch at 1:20 a.m. EST (05:20 UTC), Nov. 23, 2021 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.⁣
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Credit: NASA/Producer/Editor: Jessica Wilde / Producer: Scott Bednar / Videographers: James Lucas and Seth Robinson⁣
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#Asteroids #Spacecraft #SolarSystem #Defense #Space #Launch #SpaceX #NASA

## Stats

- **Views:** 0
- **Likes:** 197,010
- **Shares:** 0
- **Comments:** 958

## Tags

dartmission, nasa, launch, space, spacecraft, asteroids, spacex, defense, solarsystem, planetarydefense

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