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Mission Overview Impactor Spacecraft Planetary Defense Team Gallery News & Resources Contact -- -- Double Asteroid Redirection Test NASA's first planetary defense mission Mission Overview is the first-ever space mission to demonstrate asteroid deflection by kinetic impactor. Impactor Spacecraft The impactor is a low-cost spacecraft, equipped with a camera and the ability to autonomously guide itself to impact the asteroid. Planetary Defense "Planetary defense" encompasses activities undertaken to understand the hazards posed to Earth by potential impacts of asteroids and comets and to develop approaches to prevent or minimize the effects of those impacts. The First Planetary Defense Mission is NASA's first mission to demonstrate asteroid deflection by a kinetic impactor. -- The First Planetary Defense Mission is one part of NASA's larger planetary defense strategy. -- The First Planetary Defense Mission is a focused spacecraft, designed to navigate to and impact an asteroid at a speed of 6.6 kilometers per second (roughly 15,000 miles per hour). -- Previous Next Hitting an Asteroid Head On NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test () will be the first-ever space mission to demonstrate asteroid deflection by kinetic impactor on a binary asteroid target: the moon of Didymos, called Dimorphos. Didymos is Greek for "twin", and Dimorphos means "having two forms" in recognition of humanity changing the form of the body via the mission. View Gallery News Predicting the Unpredictable - The Dynamics of 's Dive Into an Asteroid 07/23/2020 \ Mission Website Staying Aligned During COVID-19: APL Propels Space Missions Forward 07/02/2020 \ Mission Website NASA's First Planetary Defense Mission Target Gets a New Name 06/23/2020 \ Mission Website NASA planetary defense efforts continue during pandemic 06/09/2020 \ SpaceNews Johns Hopkins APL Receives Spacecraft Structure and Ramps Up Integration and Testing 05/19/2020 \ Mission Website Why NASA plans to slam a spacecraft into an asteroid 04/28/2020 \ National Geographic NASA’s First Planetary Defense Mission Readies for Integration and Testing at APL 04/13/2020 \ Mission Website NASA’s Plan to Stop an Asteroid Headed for Earth 02/04/2020 \ Freethink Building a Brand 01/30/2020 \ Blog Receives First Flight Guidance and Control Sensor 12/16/2019 \ Blog Project Successfully Completes Critical Milestone 11/06/2019 \ Mission Website We’re going to slam a spacecraft into an asteroid to try to deflect it 09/17/2019 \ MIT Technology Review A Launch Four Centuries in the Making 09/03/2019 \ Blog What's in the Box? Team Unpacks a Spacecraft 07/19/2019 \ Press Release A Visit to SpaceX 06/30/2019 \ Blog Scientists turn up the spotlight on space perils (and prospects) for Asteroid Day 06/27/2019 \ GeekWire NBC News: Inside scientists’ new plan to deflect asteroids away from Earth 06/02/2019 \ NBC News NASA’s First Planetary Defense Technology Demonstration to Collide with Asteroid in 2022 05/06/2019 \ Press Release What if a killer asteroid were headed toward Earth? NASA plans to find out this week 04/29/2019 \ NBC News Observing Didymos in 2019: Using Telescopes to Understand Our Target 04/29/2019 \ Blog Mission Set to Launch on SpaceX Falcon 9 04/12/2019 \ Press Release Smart Teams + Smart Algorithms = SMART Nav 02/25/2019 \ Blog ESA plans mission to smallest asteroid ever visited 02/04/2019 \ European Space Agency An asteroid could destroy humanity like it did dinosaurs. A Hopkins team has a plan to save the world. 02/04/2019 \ The Baltimore Sun Humanity Will Slam a Spacecraft into an Asteroid in a Few Years to Help Save Us All 01/02/2019 \ Space.com What Could be More Exciting Than Crashing a Spacecraft Into an Asteroid? 11/19/2018 \ Blog Collision Course 10/09/2018 \ Baltimore Magazine Asteroids have been hitting the Earth for billions of years. In 2022, we hit back. 09/27/2018 \ Blog APL-Led Asteroid-Deflection Mission Passes Key Development Milestone 08/30/2018 \ Press Release White House releases near Earth object action plan 06/21/2018 \ SpaceNews Space scientists have big plans to avert an asteroid apocalypse 04/06/2018 \ NBC News Course Corrector: Managers of proposed mission hope to protect Earth from giant space rocks 10/01/2017 \ Aerospace America NASA Pushes Through with Asteroid Deflection Mission That Could One Day Save Earth 07/05/2017 \ Inquisitr NASA Spacecraft Would Smash Into an Asteroid as a Dry Run for Saving the Planet 07/03/2017 \ Popular Mechanics NASA unveils plan to test asteroid defense technique 07/01/2017 \ CNN NASA'S First Asteroid Deflection Mission Enters Next Design Phase at Johns Hopkins APL 06/30/2017 \ Press Release Earth’s Best Defense Against Killer Asteroids Needs Cash 02/09/2017 \ WIRED Can We Deflect Asteroids? 11/24/2016 \ Euronews We really need to figure out how to stop a killer asteroid, scientists say 11/18/2016 \ The Washington Post Space Scientists Rally Support for 2020 Asteroid-Deflection Mission 11/15/2016 \ Space.com European Asteroid Mission Could Launch Soon, Target Space Rock Moves Near Earth 11/08/2016 \ Nature World News All News Mission Overview Impactor Spacecraft Planetary Defense Team Gallery News & Resources Contact SOC Login SharePoint Login © 2020 The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory LLC. 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