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NASA and SpaceX Tuesday night launched a spacecraft that will crash into an asteroid, the first test to see if it’s possible to reorient a space rock that could hit the planet.

The experimental technology took off at 10:21 PM PST on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. NASA announced. Is it his target? Aycik, Dimorphos.

Spacecraft will crash into asteroid – which is NASA it is not a threat to the Earth in question and changes course slightly as part of the Double Asteroid Redirect Test (DART) mission. Dimorphos orbits a larger asteroid named Didymos about 6.8 million miles from Earth and is about 530 feet in diameter.

“DART turns science fiction into science fact and NASAproactivity and innovation for the benefit of all” NASA Manager Bill Nelson said in a statement. “In addition to all roads NASA “It’s studying our universe and our home planet, we’re working to protect that home, and this test will help prove a viable way to protect our planet from a dangerous asteroid should an Earth-pointing asteroid be discovered.”

The mission will test a method of deflection called the kinetic effect, in which a spacecraft can independently target and hit an asteroid. The test will offer important information to help prepare for an asteroid that could hit Earth. NASA said.

DART’s spacecraft will not reach the asteroid system until sometime between September 26 and October 1, 2022, crashing into Dimorphos at about 4 miles per second, or more than 14,000 mph. Scientists estimate that the hit will shorten the asteroid’s orbit around Didymos by several minutes.

The spacecraft’s asteroid camera will open within a week, revealing the first images from the satellite. DART will travel on the edge of Earth’s orbit around the sun for the next 10 months until Didymos and Dimorphos are about 6.8 million miles from Earth.

Scientists want to measure the impact of the spacecraft’s collision with the asteroid using ground-based telescopes.

About four years after testing, the European Space Agency’s Hera project will conduct research by Dimorphos and Didymos, focusing on the crater left by DART’s collision with the moonlet.

Dimorfos circles Didymos at a much slower rate than the orbit of a double asteroid around the sun, meaning the effect of the reorientation test is easier to measure than a change in the orbit of a single asteroid around the sun. NASA.

A control system will allow the spacecraft to identify between the two asteroids and guide it to Dimorfos. NASA He said that the whole process will take place about an hour after the effect.

DART was built by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland.