Sky lights up during Nasa's ground-breaking Dart spacecraft launch

Nasa’s remarkable Dart spacecraft lights to sky over California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base as it sets off on its mission to test how difficult it would be to stop an asteroid from hitting Earth.

A beam of light radiated the night sky as a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carried Dart into space.

The craft will be deliberately slammed into an object called Dimorphos to try to alter its orbit.

Nasa’s aim is to test drive a planetary defence system that could prevent the human race from being annihilated in the same fashion as the dinosaurs.

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