By Aazam
October 26, 2022
Last month, NASA smashed its Double Asteroid Redirect test spacecraft into the moonlight of an asteroid that is hitting 14,000 mph
Now, NASA is declaring the demonstration triumphant, saying it has successfully changed the space rock's trajectory in a historic demonstration
That humanity could actually save itself from a catastrophic asteroid collision
"We all have a responsibility to protect our home planet," NASA boss Bill Nelson said during a briefing Tuesday
"This mission shows that whatever NASA throws at us by the universe," he said
"For the first time, humanity has changed the orbit of a planetary object," Lori Glaze, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division, told reporters
Several ground and space-based observatories, including NASA's Hubble and James Webb telescopes, were able to capture the event, confirming the new trajectory
"We shouldn't be too eager to say this," said Tom Statler, NASA's DART program scientist during the briefing
That a test on one asteroid tells us how every other asteroid would behave in a similar situation
But what we can do is use this test in our simulations as an anchor point for our physics calculations