Vandenberg air base successfully launches a missile which will strike an asteroid.
The Double Asteroid Rediretion Test or DART took off launch tonight. Mechanical engineer Lisa Woo says getting it ready was not easy because of the pandemic. Woo says the worked virtually to get that missle ready.
DART is designed to strike the asteroid moonlet, Dimorphus. It’s not a large asteroid. It’s about 525 feet in diameter- smaller than Morro rock.
The missile will hit the asteroid while traveling about 15 thousand miles per hour. That will change the orbit sometime next year.
The asteroid is not a threat to earth, but some day, as you’ve seen in science fiction movies, there may be an asteroid that hurtles outer space toward planet earth.