Asteroid-bound spacecraft separates from rocket

NASA shows the Double Asteroid Redirection Test spacecraft separating from the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that carried it into space. 

The DART spacecraft, short for Double Asteroid Redirection Test, is on a mission to smash into an asteroid and test whether it would be possible to knock a speeding space rock off course if one were to threaten Earth. It lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in a $330 million project late Tuesday. If all goes well, in September 2022 it will slam head-on into Dimorphos, an asteroid 525 feet  across, at 15,000 mph.