China chose a target asteroid to crash into while testing planetary defense

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The target for testing the Chinese anti-asteroid defense system will be the 2019 VL5. In this respect informs space news.

The launch is scheduled for 2025, the impact spacecraft will be launched on the Long March-3B rocket. Together with the impact probe, an observer apparatus will be lifted on a rocket, which will allow to study the result of the collision from a distance of about 30 kilometers. In this case, the observer will be the first to arrive at the asteroid for the first observations and assessment of its topography. The device will have a set of laser, radar and optical instruments for remote sensing of the asteroid, as well as a device for studying dust.

2019 VL5, a near-Earth asteroid about 30 meters in diameter, will meet the spacecraft at a speed of 6.4 km/s. This will change the orbital velocity of the asteroid by 5 cm/s.

A recent success Finished A test of the American anti-asteroid defense system in which the DART instrument crashed into the asteroid Dimorph.

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