NASA launches test mission for defending Earth against asteroids

NASA launched a spacecraft early Wednesday to test technology to alter the course of an asteroid by slamming into it, the world's first full-scale mission of its kind to better prepare for defending Earth against hazardous space objects.The Double Asteroid Redirection Test spacecraft is on a one-way trip to the Didymos asteroid system, aiming to intentionally collide with moonlet Dimorphos, which is approximately 160 meters in diameter, between Sept. 26 and Oct. 1 next year.The spacecraft, built and managed by Johns Hopkins University and roughly the size of a vending machine, took off from…READ FULL ARTICLE