STORY: The space probe that NASA intentionally crashed into an asteroid at the end of September managed to push the cosmic boulder out of its natural orbit, the US space agency said in Washington on Tuesday. A historic moment for NASA boss Bill Nelson: “This is a turning point for planetary defense and for humanity.” The abbreviation DART stands for “Double Asteroid Redirection Test” – and the results now presented show that the probe actually changed the direction of the asteroid due to the force of its impact. Before the impact, the football stadium-sized rock called Dimorphos orbited its parent asteroid Didymos about every 11 hours and 55 minutes. “Now the team has confirmed that the spacecraft’s impact shortened Dimorphos’ orbit around Didymos by 32 minutes, successfully shifting its trajectory.” The $330 million DART mission was the world’s first test of a planetary defense system designed to prevent a possible collision of an asteroid with Earth. The two asteroids involved in the test posed no threat to Earth, according to NASA.