Nancy Chabot, DART coordination lead at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, described how different research teams from different organizations - such as radar facilities at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Goldstone planetary radar in California and the National Science Foundation’s Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia - have independently confirmed the difference in orbital time. “We’re all here this afternoon because, for the first time ever, humanity has changed the orbit of a planetary body,” Glaze said. However, the new orbital time for Dimorphos is 11 hours, 23 minutes, a 32-minute difference, she said.Īccording to mission models before the test, it was expected that the minimum successful change of the new orbital period would be 73 seconds, she said.īut the change was far bigger than expected, she said, making it an even greater historic moment. Lori Glaze, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA headquarters in Washington, explained that the original orbital time of the pair was 11 hours, 55 minutes. "I believe that NASA has proven that we are serious as a defender of the planet." “This mission shows that NASA is trying to be ready for whatever the universe throws at us,“ Nelson said. He said the test showed the world that NASA can protect the Earth and called it a unifying international mission and a watershed moment for humanity. EDT press conference on Tuesday, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said the Double Asteroid Redirection Test ( DART) successfully changed the asteroid Dimorphos’ trajectory and the orbit around its big brother Didymos by 32 minutes following the Sept. RELATED coverage: NASA successfully crashes DART spacecraft into asteroidĭuring a 2 p.m.The European Space Agency's Hera mission will fly out to the binary asteroid to observe the DART spacecraft's impact up close in 2026.The first planetary defense mission launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in November of 2021.The DART spacecraft slammed into the asteroid Dimorphos on Sept.
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