NASA’s DART spacecraft hits target asteroid in test of planetary defense system

(Reuters) – Hurtling through the solar system at hypersonic speed on Monday, NASA’s DART spacecraft slammed itself into a distant asteroid in a test of the world’s first planetary defense system, designed to prevent a potential doomsday meteorite collision with Earth.

The finale to the suicide spaceflight, humanity’s first attempt to alter the motion of an asteroid or any celestial body, played out in a NASA webcast from the mission operations center outside Washington, D.C., 10 months after DART was launched.

(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Sandra Maler)