space
In 2022, a NASA spacecraft deliberately slammed into a small asteroid called Dimorphos and measurably shortened the time it takes to circle its companion.
DART, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, deliberately crashed a NASA spacecraft into the small moonlet Dimorphos in September 2022, and the impact shortened its orbit around its companion asteroid by roughly half an hour, far more than scientists had predicted, proving that a kinetic impact could meaningfully alter an asteroid's path.
OSIRIS-REx was a NASA mission that traveled to the asteroid Bennu to collect a sample and bring it back to Earth, not to deflect anything. Hayabusa2 was a similar Japanese sample-return mission to a different asteroid, also unrelated to deflection testing.
DART's success matters because Dimorphos posed no actual threat to Earth, it was chosen purely as a safe practice target, meaning the mission proved the deflection concept works without any real risk if the nudge had gone wrong.
space
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