Watch a Live Feed from NASA’s DART Spacecraft on Approach to Asteroid Dimorphos (upcoming)

NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) has one single instrument onboard – the Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical Navigation, aka the DRACO camera. DRACO serves as the spacecraft’s eye and will guide DART to its final destination: impact with asteroid Dimorphos. The stream you'll be watching will be a real-time feed from the DART spacecraft enabled through the DRACO camera sending one image per second to Earth.

In the hours before impact, the screen will appear mostly black, with a single point of light. That point is the binary asteroid system Didymos which is made up of a larger asteroid named Didymos and a smaller asteroid that orbits around it called Dimorphos.

As the 23:14 UTC impact of asteroid Dimorphos nears closer, the point of light will get bigger and eventually detailed asteroids will be visible.

At 23:14 UTC, the DART spacecraft is slated to intentionally crash into asteroid Dimorphos. This stream will be delayed due to the time it takes the images to arrive at Earth, plus additional time for feeding the images to various platforms.

After impact, the feed will turn black – due to a loss of signal. After about 2 minutes, this stream will turn into a replay – showing the final moments leading up to impact. That replay file will also become available on NASA websites and social media accounts.

DART is a spacecraft designed to impact an asteroid as a test of technology. DART’s target asteroid is NOT a threat to Earth. This asteroid system is a perfect testing ground to see if intentionally crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid is an effective way to change its course, should an Earth-threatening asteroid be discovered in the future.

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‍Dimorphos has been precision locked by the DART spacecraft. Impact is in about 15 minutes! Time to see what impacting an asteroid actually does to alter its trajectory.

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Watch the final moments from the DART Mission on its collision course with asteroid Dimporphos.
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Animation (sped up 500x) from one of LCO Global's 1 meter telescope at SAAO South Africa showing effects of #DARTMission impact into Dimorphos

(Still no threat to the Earth... Long straight streak is camera artifact)
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⁣Drone startup claims it flew its zero-emissions ion propulsion drone on 4.5-minute test flight

The drone, called Silent Ventus, uses proprietary technology to ionize the oxygen and nitrogen molecules in the surrounding air to create an "ionic wind" that propels the machine in the direction it wants to go. According to Undefined, the drone could be used for cargo.

According to Undefined, its "Air Tantrum" ionic propulsion technology produces up to 150 percent more thrust than current ion thruster technologies.

Earlier this year, the company released footage of a two-and-a-half-minute indoor flight test, saying the drone emitted 85 decibels of noise. Now, it claims it's flown a prototype for four and a half minutes, though it's only released one minute, 17 seconds of footage. The drone firm also says it achieved a noise level below 75 dB.

🌐 Watch test flight

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"...Liftoff, Americans return to space as Discovery clears the tower"

34 years ago today, September 29th, 1988 at 11:37am, Space Shuttle Discovery launched on STS-26. This marked the first launch of the Shuttle since the tragic Challenger disaster in 1986.

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NASA and SpaceX have signed a space act agreement for a commercial mission to boost the Hubble Space Telescope. This will extend the lifetime of the telescope, and preclude emerging concerns about the need for costly end-of-life disposal.
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