Following the success of NASA’s DART mission, Chinese researchers are planning a new planetary defense test that they claim is bolder and better adapted to protecting Earth from hazardous asteroids. Scientists from the China National Space Administration outlined a plan to directly change an asteroid’s trajectory relative to Earth by striking it with a spacecraft at high speed, according to the South China Morning Post. China is aiming to pull off the space stunt before 2030, deploying two spacecraft: one to strike the asteroid and another to observe the impact. Fast impact The upcoming mission is designed to test new technologies that would keep Earth safe from hefty space rocks headed in our direction. In September 2022, NASA’s DART spacecraft rammed into the non-threatening asteroid moonlet Dimorphos at nearly 15,000 miles per hour (24,000 kilometers per hour) to alter its trajectory using kinetic impact. DART was the world’s first planetary defense test, proving the agency’s ability to deflect a hazardous asteroid. Now, China is following up with its own approach for asteroid deflection. The Chinese spacecraft would rendezvous with its target during a close approach to Earth in 2029 or 2030, where the asteroid is estimated to be approximately 4.3 million miles away (7 million kilometers).