NASA spacecraft crashes into asteroid

A NASA spacecraft rammed an asteroid at blistering speed Monday in an unprecedented dress rehearsal for the day a killer rock menaces Earth. The galactic grand slam occurred at a harmless asteroid 9.6 million kilometers away, with the spacecraft named Dart plowing into the small space rock at 22,500 kph.

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. The $325 million mission was the first attempt to shift the position of an asteroid or any other natural object in space.