NASA pays SpaceX for firing a rocket at asteroids – Science

The US Space Agency has signed a spectacular deal with the private company and is planning a mission ready for cinema in space.

The plan seems crazy and looks a bit like Hollywood cinema. In June 2021, there is already a responsible start date for the mission. As part of the "double asteroid redirection test" (DART), the NASA a spaceship with such a force on a asteroids bounce that he is distracted from his orbit of origin. The test is designed to determine if you are on a collision course with Earth this way. asteroids stop or divert.

SpaceX helps NASA collide with a spaceship and an asteroid

Like that NASA Friday announced that a satellite would be launched aboard a SpaceX missile. The target is the double Didymos asteroid, which will be at the moment of collision with the satellite about eleven million kilometers from the Earth. The collision will occur approximately 16 months after the launch of the satellite in October 2022. The impact speed will be six kilometers per second, which corresponds to 21,726 km / h.

The target was the smaller of the two asteroids, Didymos B, selected, which is about 160 meters in diameter. Didymos A is almost five times bigger with its 780 meters in diameter. The theory predicts that even a small course correction by impact asteroids so distracting that it misses the earth – as long as it happens soon enough. The double asteroid is not a threat to the Earth, it is only used for testing purposes. The planned mission with the help of SpaceX is expected to cost $ 69 million.

The relationship between NASA and SpaceX becomes serious

For SpaceX, which has just successfully completed its first commercial flight on the Falcon Heavy rocket and landed safely on all three reactors, Good News Week continues. That the NASA the space society of Elon Musk For the first time, not only for commercial purposes, but also for a research mission, this shows that the Space Agency's collaboration with SpaceX has reached a higher level.

Incidentally, just recently, Elon Musk was able to successfully dock with the ISS on SpaceX.

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