Dubbed the ‘real-life Armageddon mission,’ a spacecraft that will purposefully crash into a ‘hazardous’ asteroid is set to launch.  

NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (or DART mission) will depart from Earth next month and carry out a universe-first maneuver in space less than a year later. 

 It's hoped the rocket will be able to successfully change the course of a small moon orbiting a near-Earth asteroid, paving the way for us to be able to protect our planet from a potential asteroid collision in future.

Elon Musk-founded SpaceX will provide the Falcon 9 rocket, which will launch from the Vandenburg Space Force Base in California at 10:20pm Pacific Time on November 23.  For everyone in the UK, this will happen on November 24 at 5:20am GMT. Live coverage will air on NASA’s TV channel, app and website.