The DART spacecraft weighs 620 kg, about the mass of a brown bear, and measures about 19 metres across. It will be launched by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and thrust into an ‘Earth-escape trajectory’.

Following lift-off, as DART climbs heavenward but Earth rotates beneath it, the spacecraft will follow a unique path in the sky. Passing first down the west coast of South America then east across the Atlantic, it will finally appear above the horizon as seen from Australia.

About 60 minutes after launch, the spacecraft will separate from the launcher, its transponder will turn on, and ESA’s 4.5-metre antenna in New Norcia, Western Australia, will capture its very first words – the ‘acquisition of signal’.