On Monday, September 26, 2022, the USA’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will deliberately crash one of its very expensive spacecraft. What’s more, they’re doing it on live TV and inviting the world to watch.

NASA announced “[Its] Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft is set to slam into an asteroid on Monday (Sept. 26), in the first ever test of humanity’s ability to deflect life-threatening space rocks before they collide with Earth.” The DART is an unmanned space probe,”a ,210-pound (550 kilograms) a squat cube-shaped probe consisting of sensors, an antenna, an ion thruster and two 28-foot-long (8.5 meters) solar arrays”. It will will smash into the asteroid Dimorphos while traveling at roughly 13,420 mph (21,160 km/h). If you have access to NASA TV, you can watch the planned collision beginning at 1800 Eastern time zone, that’s six o’clock pm (5:00 Central time zone). The collision itself is scheduled for 7:14 p.m. ET on Monday. For SciFi.Radio’s international fans, that means the live broadcast will start eleven p.m. Greenwich time and the actual collision will be just after midnight on Tuesday morning. It will be worth staying up for.

Science Fiction is full of tales of asteroids hitting and endangering the Earth. Now, Science Fact will see if such a fate can be avoided. The purpose of this experiment is to see if humanity “change the motion of a natural celestial body,” announced Dr. Tom Statler.

{Artist’s concept of the DART mission. Credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben}

If you don’t already have plans for Monday evening, it might be a good night to stay home and watch TV. This will be a historic moment.

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Susan Macdonald
Susan Macdonald

Susan Macdonald is the author of the children’s book “R is for Renaissance Faire”, as well as 26 short stories, mostly fantasy in “Alternative Truths”, “Swords and Sorceress ”, Swords &Sorceries Vols. 1, 2, & 5, “Cat Tails” “Under Western Stars”, and “Knee-High Drummond and the Durango Kid”. Her articles have appeared on SCIFI.radio’s web site, in The Inquisitr, and in The Millington Star. She enjoys Renaissance Faires (see book above), science fiction conventions,  Highland Games, and Native American pow-wows.