NASA will get to test its planetary defense system way sooner than we thought

NASA is extremely interested in building a true astroid defense network that could spring into action as soon as a threat is detected, destroying or diverting a space rock before it can do any serious damage here on Earth. The actual development of a protection system is still in its infancy — with many proposed plans for dealing with troublesome astroids but no real-world testing to back any of them — but that won't stop NASA from testing its detection capabilities during an upcomin