Media accreditation is open for the upcoming launch of NASAs 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 VandenbergSpace Force Base in California. Live coverage of the launch will air on NASA TV, theNASA app, and the agencyswebsite.
DART will be the first demonstration of thekineticimpactortechnique, 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.
NASAsmedia accreditation policyis available online. Requests must be submitted online at:
NASAs 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 NASAsLaunch Services Program, based at the agencys Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
