Channel: NASA's Kennedy Space Center

Category: Science & Technology

Tags: vandenberg space force basedartnasadouble asteroid redirection testimaging x-ray polarimetry explorerixpecape canaveral space force stationkennedy space centerlaunch services programkscfalcon 9space launch complex 4

Description: Final preparations are underway at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California for NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, spacecraft. DART is scheduled to launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg’s Space Launch Complex 4 at 10:21 p.m. Pacific Time on Nov. 23. The DART mission will intentionally crash the spacecraft into an asteroid to see if it is an effective way to change the asteroid’s course. Also, the Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer, or IXPE, spacecraft arrived at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida earlier this month. NASA’s first mission of this kind, IXPE will study X-rays coming from some of the universe’s most extreme sources, including black holes and dead stars known as pulsars. Both launches are managed by NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at Kennedy.