The US-based National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)'s spacecraft that is aimed at crashing to succeed its mission was launched today from California.

The mission of NASA's 'Double Asteroid Redirection Test' (DART) spacecraft is to demonstrate the world's first planetary defence system, which is designed to smash directly into an asteroid and deflect it away from causing a potential Armageddon-style doomsday collision with Earth.

NASA, in a statement, said, "DART is a planetary defence-driven test of technologies for preventing an impact of Earth by a hazardous asteroid. DART will be the first demonstration of the kinetic impactor technique to change the motion of an asteroid in space."