NASA’s DART spacecraft slams into asteroid to knock it off its path

The NASA Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft on Monday deliberately slammed into an asteroid millions of miles away in an innovative test for a possible killer rock that could one day be headed to Earth. 

NASA described the mission as an "impact success," saying the "vending machine-sized spacecraft" collided with the asteroid Dimorphos, which is the size of a football stadium and poses no threat to Earth. 

The impact occurred 7 million miles away, with the DART spacecraft plowing into the rock at 14,000 mph. Scientists expected the impact to carve out a crater, hurl streams of rocks and dirt into space and, most importantly, alter the asteroid's orbit.