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NASA is crashing a satellite into an asteroid to gather data about asteroid deflection
The threat of asteroids crashing into Earth isn’t a new concern. We’ve been warned about it by science fiction authors and Hollywood alike, and any kid that’s ever paid attention to dinosaurs in school knows there are bad outcomes when life and chunks of space rock meet up. The space agencies of Europe and the United States are not blind to the threat, thankfully, and they have a multi-part satellite mission in the works directed to gathering real data on how to redirect an asteroid with bad intentions for our planet, i.e., is on a collision course. Specifically, they’re planning on crashing one satellite into an asteroid and studying the effect with another satellite run by the European Space Agency (ESA).
NASA’s part of the mission is called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), and it will serve as the first demonstration of changing asteroid motion in space. The launch window begins in late December 2020, most likely on track for June 2021, for arrival at its targeted asteroid, Didymos, in early October 2022. Didymos is Greek for “twin”, the name being chosen because it’s a binary system with two bodies: Didymos the asteroid, about a half mile across, and Didymoon the moonlet, about 530 feet across, acting as a moonlet. The two currently have a Sun-centric orbit and will have a distant approach to Earth around the same time as DART’s launch window and then again in 2024.
After reaching the asteroid, DART will enter orbit around Didymoon, and crash into it at a speed of about 4 mi/s (nine times faster than a bullet) to change its speed by a fraction of one percent, an amount measurable by Earth-based telescopes for easy study. Unsurprisingly, the preferred description is “kinetic impact technique” rather than “crash” – maybe even “impact” or “strike”, if we’re avoiding terms that sound random or accidental. The mission is being led by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL) and managed by the Planetary Missions Program Office at Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama for NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office.
NASA’s DART mission is one of two parts of an overall mission dubbed AIDA (Asteroid Impact & Deflection Assessment). Joining the agency’s Earth-protection venture is the ESA with its Hera spacecraft, named after the Greek goddess of marriage, a probe that will follow up DART’s mission with a detailed survey of the asteroid’s response to the impact. Collected data will help formulate planetary defense plans by providing detailed analysis from DART’s real-time asteroid deflection experiment. Its launch is scheduled for 2023.
Just this month, another part was added to Hera’s mission: CubeSats. This class of tiny satellites is about the size of a briefcase, and they recently made their deep space debut during NASA’s Mars InSight landing. During that mission, twin CubeSats collectively named MarCO followed along on the journey to Mars behind InSight, eventually relaying data during the landing event back to NASA’s Mission Control along with a photo of the red planet. ESA’s CubeSats, named APEX (Asteroid Prospection Explorer) and Juventas, will travel inside Hera, gather data on Didymos and its moonlet, and then both will land on their respective rocks and provide imaging from the surface.
Just to recap: Tiny satellites in a class that students and startups can and have developed and launched will travel into deep space and land on asteroids. This is big news for the democratization of space travel. As emphasized by Paolo Martino, Hera’s lead engineer in ESA’s article announcing the CubeSat mission, “The idea of building CubeSats for deep space is relatively new, but was recently validated by NASA’s InSight landing on Mars last November.”
Using kinetic energy – pure ram/crash force – isn’t the only option NASA is looking at for defending Earth from incoming asteroids. A “gravity tractor” concept would orbit a craft in a way that would change the trajectory due to gravitational tugging. Similar to how our moon has an impact on our tides or the Earth makes the Sun wobble ever so slightly, a satellite orbiting an asteroid would give pushes and pulls to set its course elsewhere.
Unfortunately, a gravity tractor likely wouldn’t be very effective for asteroids large enough to seriously threaten our planet. Also, the techniques for achieving it would require decades to develop and test in space. Laser ablation, or using spacecraft lasers to vaporize asteroid rock to change an asteroid’s course, is another technique NASA has considered, but it might be just as feasible or cost-effective to simply launch projectiles to achieve the same purpose.
Watch the below video for a visual overview of the DART and HERA missions:
Elon Musk
Tesla is sending its humanoid Optimus robot to the Boston Marathon
Tesla’s Optimus robot is heading to the Boston Marathon finish line
Tesla’s Optimus humanoid robot will be stationed at the Tesla showroom at 888 Boylston Street in Boston, right along the final stretch of the Boston Marathon today, ready to cheer on runners and pose for photos with spectators.
According to a Tesla email shared by content creator Sawyer Merritt on X, Optimus will be at the Boston Boylston Street showroom on April 20, coinciding with Marathon Monday weekend. The Boston Marathon finishes on Boylston Street, and the surrounding area draws hundreds of thousands of spectators along with international broadcast coverage. Placing Optimus there puts it in front of a massive public audience at zero advertising cost.
Just got this email. @Tesla’s Optimus robot is coming to Boston.
“Join us from April 19 to 20, 2026, at Tesla Boston Boylston Street showroom to meet Optimus, our humanoid robot, for Marathon Monday. Optimus will be cheering with you on the sidelines and posing for photos.” pic.twitter.com/chxoooO2xV
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) April 18, 2026
The Tesla showroom is at 888 Boylston Street, between Gloucester Street and Fairfield Street. The final mile of the marathon runs directly along Boylston Street, with runners passing the big stores before reaching the finish line at Copley Square.
Optimus was first announced at Tesla’s AI Day event on August 19, 2021, when Elon Musk presented a vision for a general-purpose robot designed to take on dangerous, repetitive, and unwanted tasks. In March 2026, Optimus appeared at the Appliance and Electronics World Expo in Shanghai, where on-site staff stated that mass production of the robot could begin by the end of 2026. Before that, it showed up at the Tesla Hollywood Diner opening in July 2025 and at a Miami showroom event in December 2025.
Tesla’s well-calculated display of Optimus gives the public a low-pressure first encounter with a robot that Tesla is preparing to soon deploy at scale. The company has previously indicated plans to manufacture Optimus robots at its Fremont facility at up to 1 million units annually, with an Optimus production line at Gigafactory Texas targeting 10 million units per year.
Tesla showcases Optimus humanoid robot at AWE 2026 in Shanghai
Musk has said that Optimus “has the potential to be more significant than the vehicle business over time,” and separately that roughly 80 percent of Tesla’s future value will come from the robot program. Whether that holds depends on production execution. For now, Boston gets a preview of what that future looks like, standing at the finish line on Boylston Street while 32,000 runners pass by.
News
Tesla expands Unsupervised Robotaxi service to two new cities
This expansion builds directly on Tesla’s existing operations. Robotaxi has been ramping unsupervised rides in Austin for months and maintains activity in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Tesla has taken a major step forward in its autonomous ride-hailing ambitions.
On April 18, the company’s official Robotaxi account announced that Robotaxi service is now rolling out in Dallas and Houston, Texas. The update signals the rapid scaling of unsupervised autonomous operations in the Lone Star State.
The announcement includes a compelling 14-second video captured from inside a Model Y. Shot from the passenger perspective, the footage shows the vehicle navigating suburban roads in both cities with zero driver intervention, with no Safety Monitor to be seen.
Robotaxi now rolling out in Dallas & Houston 🤠 pic.twitter.com/G3KFQwqGxB
— Tesla Robotaxi (@robotaxi) April 18, 2026
Tesla also shared geofence maps highlighting the initial service areas: a compact zone in Houston covering parts of Willowbrook and Jersey Village, and a similarly defined area in Dallas near Highland Park and central neighborhoods.
🚨 Tesla has expanded Robotaxi to two new cities: Houston and Dallas, joining Austin and the SF Bay Area as active Robotaxi areas https://t.co/S3Ck4EaGpR pic.twitter.com/N0qu0bcTyd
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) April 18, 2026
This expansion builds directly on Tesla’s existing operations. Robotaxi has been ramping unsupervised rides in Austin for months and maintains activity in the San Francisco Bay Area.
With Dallas and Houston now live, Texas hosts three active hubs—an impressive concentration that triples the company’s Lone Star footprint in just weeks. The move aligns with Tesla’s Q4 2025 earnings guidance, which outlined a broader H1 2026 rollout across seven U.S. cities, including Phoenix, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and Las Vegas.
Texas offers favorable regulations, high ride-share demand, and relatively straightforward suburban-to-urban driving patterns ideal for early autonomous scaling. While initial geofences appear modest—roughly 25 square miles per city—Tesla has historically expanded these zones quickly as it gathers real-world data.
Tesla confirms Robotaxi expansion plans with new cities and aggressive timeline
Unsupervised operation marks a critical milestone: passengers can summon, ride, and exit without safety drivers, a leap beyond many competitors still requiring human oversight.
For Tesla, the implications are significant. Successful scaling in major metros could accelerate the transition to a fully driverless fleet, unlocking new revenue streams and validating years of Full Self-Driving investment.
Riders gain convenient, potentially lower-cost mobility, while the company edges closer to Elon Musk’s vision of Robotaxis transforming urban transport.
As Tesla pushes into more cities this year, today’s launch in Dallas and Houston underscores its momentum. Hopefully, Tesla will be able to expand unsupervised rides to another U.S. state soon, which will mark yet another chapter in this short-but-encouraging Robotaxi story.
News
Tesla is pushing Robotaxi features to owner cars with Spring Update
Tesla has quietly begun rolling out one of its most forward-looking Robotaxi-inspired features to existing customer vehicles.
Tesla is starting to push Robotaxi features to owner cars, and the first instances are coming as the Spring 2026 Update starts to roll out.
Tesla has quietly begun rolling out one of its most forward-looking Robotaxi-inspired features to existing customer vehicles.
With the 2026 Spring Update (version 2026.14+), the rear passenger display now features a fully interactive navigation map that works while the car is driving — a capability previously reserved for Tesla Robotaxi.
First look at Tesla’s v2026.14.1 Spring Update.
🧭Rear screen interactive map #teslaupdate #tesla #teslasrpingupdate pic.twitter.com/yH3T4U8qHp— Sergiu Mogan (@sergiumogan) April 17, 2026
Until now, Tesla’s rear displays have been largely limited to media controls, climate settings, and static route overviews. The new interactive map transforms the backseat into an active navigation hub, exactly the kind of passenger-first interface Tesla has been prototyping for its driverless fleet.
In a Robotaxi, where no one sits behind the wheel, every rider will need intuitive, real-time map access. By shipping this UI into thousands of owner cars months ahead of the Cybercab’s planned unveiling, Tesla is stress-testing the software in real-world conditions and giving loyal customers an early taste of the autonomous future.
The rollout is still in its early wave. Only a small number of vehicles have received 2026.14.1 so far, but the feature is expected to expand rapidly in the coming weeks. Owners of Model S, Model X, Model 3, Model Y, and Cybertruck are all eligible.
For buyers of the new Signature Edition Model S and X Plaid vehicles — whose deliveries begin in May — the update will likely arrive shortly after they take delivery, meaning the final chapter of Tesla’s flagship lineup will ship with cutting-edge Robotaxi preview tech baked in.
Elon Musk has long emphasized that Tesla ships supporting infrastructure well before new products launch. This rear-map rollout is a textbook example of that philosophy — quietly preparing both the software and the customer base for a world of fully driverless rides.
While the interactive map may seem like a modest convenience upgrade on the surface, its deeper purpose is unmistakable. Tesla is using its massive installed base of vehicles as a proving ground for the exact passenger experience that will define the Robotaxi era.
For current owners, it’s a free preview of tomorrow’s mobility; for the company, it’s invaluable data and real-world validation before the Cybercab hits the streets.
Tesla is sending its humanoid Optimus robot to the Boston Marathon
Tesla expands Unsupervised Robotaxi service to two new cities
