China to Crash Spacecraft Into Asteroid in Planetary Defense Test
Chinese astronomers are developing a mission to crash a spacecraft into the 30-meter-wide asteroid 2015 XF261 by 2030 to test planetary defense capabilities. Unlike NASA’s 2022 DART mission, which targeted a “rubble pile” space rock, this project aims to strike a solid asteroid and measure its orbital shift relative to the Sun, according to a … Read more