Posted: Sat, Nov 27, 2021, 10:21 AM ET (1521 GMT)
NASA's first planetary defense mission is on its way to a near Earth asteroid after a launch early Wednesday. A SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted off at 1:21 am EST (0621 GMT) from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California and deployed NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft about 55 minutes later. DART will travel to the near Earth asteroid Didymos and collide with its moon, Dimorphos, in 10 months to test the ability of such collisions to change the trajectory of asteroids.

Related Links:

•  SpaceNews article
•  New York Times article
•  AP article
•  Wall Street Journal article
•  NASA press release