NASA Invites Media to Launch of Double Asteroid Redirection Test

[NASA News Releases <hqnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

	October 04, 2021  MEDIA ADVISORY M21-125 NASA Invites Media to Launch of Double Asteroid Redirection Test dart_header.jpg Illustration of NASA’s DART spacecraft and the Italian Space Agency’s (ASI) LICIACube prior to impact at the Didymos binary system. Credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins, APL/Steve Gribben Media accreditation is open for the upcoming launch of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, an evaluation of technologies for preventing a hazardous asteroid from striking Earth. DART is targeted to launch at 10:20 p.m. PST, Nov. 23, 2021, (1:20 a.m. EST, Nov. 24), aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Live coverage of the launch will air on NASA TV, the NASA app, and the agency’s website. DART will be the first demonstration of  the kinetic impactor technique, which involves sending one or more large, high-speed spacecraft into the path of an asteroid in space to change its motion. Its target is the binary near-Earth asteroid Didymos and its moonlet. Credentialing deadlines are as follows: International media residing in the U.S. must apply by Friday, Oct. 8, 2021. U.S. media must apply by Sunday, Oct. 15, 2021. NASA’s media accreditation policy is available online. Requests must be submitted online at: https://media.ksc.nasa.gov NASA’s COVID-19 policies are updated as necessary and to remain consistent with guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and White House Safer Federal Workforce Taskforce. COVID-19 safety protocols for this event will be communicated closer to the date of the event. The agency also will communicate any updates that may impact mission planning or media access as necessary. DART is directed by NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office to the Applied Physics Laboratory with support from several NASA centers: the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, Johnson Space Center in Houston, Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, and Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. The launch is managed by NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. To learn more about the DART mission, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/dart Para obtener información sobre cobertura en español en el Centro Espacial Kennedy o si desea solicitar entrevistas en español, comuníquese con Antonia Jaramillo 321-501-8425. -end-
	Press Contacts Josh Handal NASA Headquarters, Washington 202-358-2307 joshua.a.handal@xxxxxxxx Greg Harland Kennedy Space Center, Fla. 321-289-9880 gregory.b.harland@xxxxxxxx
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