Small-body mission · NASA / JHU APL

DART

NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test — the first full-scale planetary-defense demonstration. The spacecraft deliberately crashed into Dimorphos, the small moon of asteroid Didymos, in 2022, measurably shortening its orbit and proving that a kinetic impactor can deflect an asteroid.

CompletedImpactor Mission

This is the small-body-missions view of DART. See its main mission page for the full profile.

Targets & sample

Target bodies:65803 Didymos Dimorphos

Mission & science

Goals: Demonstrate asteroid deflection by kinetic impact and measure the resulting orbit change.
Engineering milestones: Impacted Dimorphos on 26 September 2022; the Italian LICIACube cubesat imaged the ejecta.
Science discoveries: Shortened Dimorphos's orbit around Didymos by about 32 minutes — far more than required, thanks to ejecta momentum.
Outcome: Complete success; the first demonstrated asteroid deflection.

Knowledge connections

Operated byNASA
Launched byFalcon 9
Launched fromVandenberg Space Force Base
Visited65803 Didymos
VisitedDimorphos
Member of groupImpactor Mission
Visited65803 Didymos
ImpactedDimorphos
Associated withSurface Operations & Sampling
Associated withAIDA
Tracked byDeep Space Network (DSN)
Associated withOptical Navigation
Associated withDART Alters an Asteroid's Orbit
Associated withFirst Planetary Defence Demonstration
Associated withDeflection
Associated withKinetic Impactor

Sources

Facts on this topic will be cited from these primary and reference sources.

NASANational Aeronautics and Space Administration
Mission data, planetary science, space telescopes, and public-domain imagery.
Most NASA-produced imagery is in the public domain; individual items are checked for usage terms before publication.

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DART

Mission & science

Goals

Demonstrate asteroid deflection by kinetic impact and measure the resulting orbit change.

Engineering milestones

Impacted Dimorphos on 26 September 2022; the Italian LICIACube cubesat imaged the ejecta.

Science discoveries

Shortened Dimorphos's orbit around Didymos by about 32 minutes — far more than required, thanks to ejecta momentum.

Outcome

Complete success; the first demonstrated asteroid deflection.

Sources

Facts on this topic will be cited from these primary and reference sources.

NASANational Aeronautics and Space Administration

Mission data, planetary science, space telescopes, and public-domain imagery.

Most NASA-produced imagery is in the public domain; individual items are checked for usage terms before publication.