麻豆约拍

Nasa has launched a spacecraft on a suicide mission to smash into a far-flung asteroid. The aim is to test their ability to deflect the paths of comets and in so doing, potentially save the Earth from a catastrophic collision.

The spacecraft will crash into an object called Dimorphos to see how much its speed and path can be altered.

One of those involved in the DART mission is Harrison Agrusa. Newsday spoke to him a short time before blast off at the launch site in California.

(Photo: An illustration shows the Dart spacecraft approaching the Dimorphos and Didymos asteroids. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL / STEVE GRIBBEN)