NASA DART launch

NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft was launched by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, on 24 November 2021, at 06:21 UTC (23 November, at 22:21 local time - PST). The DART mission is NASA’s demonstration of kinetic impactor technology, impacting an asteroid to adjust its speed and path. DART is scheduled to impact the asteroid Dimorphos, from the binary asteroid system Didymos, in October 2022. Following stage separation, Falcon 9’s first stage landed on the “Of Course I Still Love You” droneship, stationed in the Pacific Ocean. Falcon 9’s first stage (B1063) previously supported the launch of Sentinel-6A and a Starlink mission. Credit: NASA/SpaceX