Falcon 9 launches DART

A SpaceX Falcon 9 successfully launched a NASA mission that will deliberately collide with a near Earth asteroid to test a technique that could be used to deflect the trajectory of any future asteroid on a collision course with the Earth. The Falcon 9 lifted off on schedule at 1:21 a.m. Eastern Nov. 24 from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The rocket’s upper stage deployed NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft about 55 minutes later, after two burns of that stage. NASA later confirmed that the spacecraft was in good health and had deployed its solar arrays. More

(Source: SpaceNews - Nov 25)