# Nasa has launched a space project to pave the way for technology that would one day be able to steer a dangerous asteroid off course. The American space agency says its Dart mission intends to find out if it was possible to prevent a space rock from colliding with Earth. The BBC reports the spacecraft is on course to crash into an object to ascertain the influence on the asteroid’s direction and speed. The Dart was launched on a Falcon 9 rocket from a space base in California this morning.