SAN FRANCISCO, iNews.id – Since 2017 NASA is in the process of testing to see if crashing a satellite into an asteroid could change its course. The United States space agency asks for help SpaceX in this effort in 2019.
Now, SpaceX shares they have completed a static fire test and are targeting November 21 as the launch date for the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART). At 10:21 p.m. PT that day, NASA will deliberately crash the DART spacecraft into the asteroid to see if that’s an effective way of changing its course, should an asteroid threatening Earth be discovered in the future.
A static fire test is one of several steps in preparing a launch vehicle for use, and it checks engine startup performance, measuring things like pressure and temperature. With this stage completed, SpaceX and NASA are likely to resume it next week.
DART targets a binary asteroid with two objects called Didymos (the Greek word for “twin”). Didymos B measures 160 meters (about 174 yards), and orbits the larger Didymos A, which measures 780 meters.
Editor: Dini Listiyani
