It lifted off from a base in California and will now be testing technology.
NASA's launched a test rocket, on a mission to protect earth from asteroids.
It lifted off from a base in California this morning - and will now be testing technology.
Experts want the spacecraft to collide with an object to see how much its speed and path can be changed.
The aim is to find out whether an asteroid can be sent off course - and avoid continent-wide devastation.
Westmeath's Laurence O Rourke, Science Operations Co-ordinator from European Space Agency has been speaking to Will Faulkner on the Midlands Today Show.
He says there are about 20,000 asteroids that come close to the Earth every year:
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