On on the offensive, NASA and Space X launched the  DART mission; a world’s first full-scale mission to test technology for defending Earth against potential asteroid or comet hazards, 

DART, short for Double Asteroid Redirection Test was Launched Wednesday, 24/11/2021 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California United States.

The goal of the mission is to crash the spacecraft into an object called Dimorphos to alter the path and speed of the asteroid if not completely destroy it.

Double Asteroid Redirection Test was built and managed by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland

A piece of technology called SMART Nav, which is short for Small-body Maneuvering Autonomous Real Time Navigation, is a  control and navigation system, working with sophisticated algorithms that will enable the spacecraft identify the asteroid. The system will then direct the spacecraft toward Dimorphos.

Thomas Zurbuchen, is an associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

He stated that:

“At its core, DART is a mission of preparedness, and it is also a mission of unity,”  “This international collaboration involves DART, ASI’s LICIACube, and ESA’s Hera investigations and science teams, which will follow up on this groundbreaking space mission.”