China plans asteroid defense test with Mach 26 projectile

China is preparing to test its planetary defense capabilities by firing a projectile at an asteroid at 26 times the speed of sound, according to a report by the South China Morning Post. The mission, which involves a kinetic impactor spacecraft, is designed to alter the trajectory of a near-Earth asteroid as a rehearsal for deflecting any future object that might threaten the planet.

The test will target a small asteroid, though the specific rock has not been publicly named. The impactor will strike at Mach 26, or roughly 32,000 kilometers per hour, to see if the collision can change the asteroid's orbit. The mission is part of China's broader planetary defense strategy, which includes building a network of telescopes and satellites to detect and track potentially hazardous objects.

This matters because an asteroid impact could cause catastrophic damage on a regional or global scale. The source notes that a sizable asteroid could “devastate a small country,” making planetary defense a critical priority for spacefaring nations. China's test follows a similar mission by NASA, which successfully crashed a spacecraft into the asteroid Dimorphos in 2022, altering its orbit.

China is also constructing an asteroid monitoring network that will use ground-based telescopes and space-based assets to hunt for hidden rocks that could pose a threat. The system aims to detect objects that are currently unknown and track their orbits with high precision. The next steps for China's planetary defense program include completing the monitoring network and conducting the kinetic impact test, with the goal of demonstrating a reliable method to protect Earth from future asteroid strikes.