The register › classical

DART's autonomous targeting

Aimed the spacecraft at a small asteroid by itself, and hit it.

OperatorJohns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, for NASA
DeveloperJohns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
HostDART
Wheredeep space
Classclassical
Hardwarenot stated in what was read
Model or softwareAn autonomous targeting system, known as SMART Nav
Launched24 Nov 2021
Ran26 September 2022
Ended26 Sep 2022
CatalogueNASA DART, number 49497; matched by name, the reviewer's judgement

What was said, and by whom

  1. “DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) used an autonomous targeting system to aim itself at Dimorphos.”

    Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory: the developer. DART, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. Published 26 Sep 2023 (page metadata). Read 4 Oct 2026, in part: three sentences of 5,300 characters.

  2. “DART impacted Dimorphos on Sept. 26, 2022, striking the smaller body at just over four miles per second”

    Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory: the developer. DART, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. Published 26 Sep 2023 (page metadata). Read 4 Oct 2026, in part: three sentences of 5,300 characters.

  3. OBJECT_NAME: NASA DART; LAUNCH_DATE: 2021-11-24; DECAY_DATE: 2022-09-26

    CelesTrak satellite catalogue: a public catalogue. Satellite catalogue record 49497 (NASA DART), CelesTrak. Published undated (a live catalogue record; dated by when it was read). Read 4 Oct 2026, in full.

Notes

Classed as classical autonomy: navigation from images by fixed algorithms, with no learned model named in what was read. The catalogue's decay date is the day of the impact.

Changed

Added on 4 October 2026, in the second round of reading.

Cite or share

DART's autonomous targeting. Every AI that has run above the Kármán line, graded by evidence. Reviewed 4 Oct 2026. https://karman-si.pages.dev/r/dart-smart-nav/

Address: https://karman-si.pages.dev/r/dart-smart-nav/

Kármán register: L3 R1 A badge with this record's marks, at /badge/dart-smart-nav.svg. This record as data.