On November 24th, 2021, SpaceX launched the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission for NASA atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The mission will intentionally crash a spacecraft into an asteroid to test the effect of the impact on the object's trajectory.

DART’s target, the Didymos binary asteroid, is NOT a threat to Earth, according to NASA. "This asteroid system is a perfect testing ground to see if intentionally crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid is an effective way to change its course, should an Earth-threatening asteroid be discovered in the future."

While the Didymos primary rock is about 780 meters across, the second smaller rock or “moonlet” is about 160-meters in size, which is more typical of the size of asteroids that could pose a threat to Earth.

After DART separated from the Falcon 9 upon launch, it began an intercept course with Didymos’ moonlet that will see it arrive there in late September 2022, when the Didymos system is within 11 million kilometers of Earth, according to NASA.