NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) impacted the 'moonlet' Dimorphos in the Didymos asteroid system. Watch the final moments of the spacecraft's existence and reaction from the team at John Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab.
00:00the team is standing just recognizing this moment years in the making it is
00:09really nice to see them relax a little bit get off from those computers that
00:13they've been glued to and just appreciate this moment that's come yeah
00:17and they've earned this it's just great to see them there this is so cool Lori
00:24we hit another major milestone we are now two minutes and a half from impact
00:29and smart nav has stopped maneuvering the spacecraft dart is now coasting
00:33toward dimorphos and we hope into the history books absolutely this will be
00:39I'm sure you've heard it many times tonight humanity's first ever ever
00:45attempt at trying to move another celestial body and also our first
00:49attempt ever to executed a mission and you have sole purpose of planetary defense
00:54so what an exciting exciting time yeah and I'm starting to see dimorphos start to
01:00come into view there you can see it's starting to take shape I'm starting to
01:03see individual boulders on Didymos unbelievable unbelievable clarity of
01:10images there hosting on in our projected miss distance is going to be about 17 meters
01:14all right all eyes on this event space telescopes ground telescopes from
01:26every continent on earth yeah yeah all right two minutes out does not look like one single rock to
01:36me oh boy we're getting close 14,000 miles per hour Lori 14,000 miles per hour and
01:44remember you know uh 45 minutes ago 55 minutes ago we couldn't even resolve this this object in
01:52space and now we are you can see us zeroing in right on target and we're now dropping the clock and
01:59we'll go by loss of signal to confirm impact right yes imagine we'll get that loss of signal and then
02:06we'll hear from Lena Adams again um letting us know that we feel like we'll know I feel like
02:13that'll be a crystal clear signal I think so I think we're starting to see more uh more resolution in fact look at
02:24that didymos is even con out of the view we're now just seeing dimorphous this is remarkable stuff
02:30oh my goodness look at that looks like control system settling down angular rates look really
02:38good I think we're gonna get the investigation team some good pictures
02:41wow no no come on we can do better than that starting to see those individual boulders there you can see
02:54shadows almost 30 seconds in fact it's amazing guys oh my goodness look at that unbelievable yeah
03:04looks to me like we're headed straight in
03:09oh my gosh oh wow yeah oh my goodness yeah seven six wow four three two one
03:30oh my gosh oh wow awaiting visual confirmation
03:37all right we got it waiting waiting
03:46come on and we have impact a family for humanity in the name of planetary defense
03:55fantastic oh fantastic oh fantastic oh what what a moment very few words can really capture this
04:07moment this is beautiful to watch
04:09amazing what a team what a team and what an accomplishment
04:22team a few weeks ago they had their last dress rehearsal they were getting emotional at the dress
04:28rehearsal and they're like this is this is crazy we're getting emotional this is not the real thing
04:31i can only imagine what they are feeling right now
04:34yes well you can see them there on screen they're all pretty excited
04:40hearing impact the curtains close on draco feed that raw joy from the team
04:50years of hard work and the weight of expectation lifted off their shoulders
04:54this is this is amazing
04:56this is beautiful and laurie really this is a huge moment for the mission
05:12lots more work needs to happen in the days
05:16absolutely now you know as i always say is one of my favorite missions now is when the science starts it just starts now now that we've impacted now we're going to see for real how effective we were we're going to train all of those ground based telescopes on the didymos dimorphous system and we're going to make measurements that will help us determine just how what its orbit looks like now relative to what it was before so it's going to be great
05:46very cool all right this is when science engineering and a great purpose planetary defense come together and you know it makes a magical moment like this yeah absolutely and you can see so many people there that have made this happen uh the team of apl engineers um that have really poured their souls into this mission
06:10thank you so much laurie any last words to mark this historic moment
06:14oh
06:16we're we're embarking on
06:18a new
06:20era of humankind
06:22um an era in which
06:24we potentially have the capability
06:27to protect ourself
06:28from something like a dangerous hazardous
06:31asteroid impact
06:33what an amazing thing we've never had that capability before
06:36thank you so much laurie those are
06:37poignant last words
06:39tahira history has been made
06:42back to you
06:43wow i mean what an exciting day for the dart team
06:51and in in case you're keeping score
06:54humanity
06:54one
06:55asteroids
06:56zero
06:57now i'm here with nancy chabot
06:59dart coordination lead
07:01nancy talk about a moment to catch on camera
07:04what is going through your head right now
07:06i mean i'm just thinking wow that was amazing wasn't it i mean those images you just got closer and closer and sort of we've been planning for this moment we've been talking about it for years at
07:36is coming anymore. It's happened now. We haven't done this. It's happened. And it is just incredible
07:42that as humans, like we have done this, we did this. And Nancy, do you have anything you'd like
07:48to say to the teams who made tonight possible? Oh, I mean, I don't need to say anything to the
07:52teams because I know everybody like me is really proud to be part of this, right? Proud of this
07:57thing that we've been working on for years, you know, and even before 2015, internationally,
08:01people wanted to do this. People wanted to take this first test. And then we finally did partners
08:06across the United States. We have actually 28 countries represented on our investigation team
08:11of scientists, telescopes on all seven continents, everybody doing their part to make this moment
08:17happen. I know I'm really honored to be on this team, and I know other people on the team feel
08:23the same way. As you should, Nancy. And I mean, there's a lot to celebrate here tonight. And so
08:29now that we have confirmed impact, can you let us know what's next for this mission?
08:35Well, I mean, I think I'm still taking a moment here.
08:39Because this is a big deal. And this was a really hard technology demonstration to hit a
08:46small asteroid we've never seen before and do it in such spectacular fashion. But I know other
08:52scientists on the team like me are already pointing at those images being like, did you see that boulder?
08:56Did you see that smooth area? Did you see the shape? What does that mean? And lychee cube is like flying
09:01by right about now, their close approach, like taking images and they're storing them. And we'll get
09:06those in the next days. Telescopes here and in space are looking, they're looking at the brightening of
09:11the rock that's thrown off from that spectacular collision that we saw. And this is going to go on
09:15for weeks. And so there's still a lot of excitement to come, but nothing to take away from this moment.
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