China to send rocket on collision course with asteroid to knock it into safer orbit

It’s an ambitious plan to move the heavens to protect Earth. China’s space agency has announced plans to target a near-Earth asteroid by sending a rocket on a collision course to knock it into a new, safer orbit, as early as 2025. It would only be the second such attempt aimed at protecting the planet from a potentially catastrophic collision. The project follows the November 2021 launch of a Nasa rocket that hopes to accomplish a similar feat of orbit-altering accuracy.