NASA to conduct planetary defense test

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), the world's first mission to test technology for defending Earth against potential asteroid or comet hazards, will impact its target asteroid on Monday, according to the agency.

The mission is set to crash into a non-hazardous asteroid to test deflection technology, should Earth ever discover a threat, said NASA.

The impact, scheduled at 7:14 p.m. Monday Eastern Daylight Time, poses no threat to Earth, according to NASA.

DART is the world's first mission to test technology for defending Earth against potential asteroid or comet hazards, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson tweeted.