The launch went smoothly, and there were no problems with the gravitational slingshot, all that was left was to fly slowly.

Despite its speeds of up to several tens of Machs, it takes about four days for the Defender A1 rocket to fly from South America to its intended tipping point in outer space.

……

Four days went by in a flash.

In less than half an hour, Defender A1 is about to make contact with the asteroid, which is being broadcast live by the world's media.

NASA Headquarters, Washington, USA.

Crews sat in front of their consoles, with large screens on the wall showing a schematic diagram of the Defender's approach to the asteroid on one side and images from the space telescope on the other—empty intended tipping points.

"How's it going, Gerald?" asked the director, Charles Bolden, who was standing beside him at this time, looking up at the big screen.

Aldrich Gerald, the NASA engineer in charge of the operation, lifted his narrow-rimmed glasses: "So far so good. In another ten minutes, the defenders will meet the asteroid at the intended tipping point. ”

"Ten minutes. Bolden nodded, "Cheer up, the most critical time has come." ”

In the schematic diagram of the large screen, the two flickering light spots are rapidly approaching, and the left light point is especially fast, about five times faster than the right light point.

As the two approached, the schematic diagram continued to enlarge, and the atmosphere in the hall became more and more tense, and everyone held their breath and was engrossed.

"Three minutes to go......"

Before Gerald finished speaking, on the other side of the big screen, the image from the space telescope finally changed, and in the empty space background, a high-speed moving object entered on both sides at the same time, one was white, and the other was dark.

"Thirty seconds to go. ”

"The last inspection showed no abnormality, and the detonation was carried out according to normal procedures. ”

"Ten...... Second...... Bell. Gerard said word by word, subconsciously clenching his fist.

All the staff stopped what they were doing and looked up at the big screen.

The intended tipping point is three million kilometers away from Earth, and it takes about ten seconds for the signal to arrive.

So at this point, the defenders have actually detonated, it's just that people have to wait another ten seconds to get the information.

Ten seconds later, the space telescope sent an image.

After four days of flight, the Defender A1 had only one stage of rocket left, and at this time it was turned off, relying only on inertial motion.

The relative velocity of the defender and the asteroid exceeded Mach 60, and after the partial image appeared, the two collided head-on in the silence of the universe for a moment.

Although the vacuum environment cannot produce a shock wave, the scene of several nuclear bombs and some rocket fuel exploding at the same time is still extremely spectacular - the blazing white light suddenly erupts, and for a time it is more dazzling than the sun, as if the amazing heat energy can be felt from the big screen.

"Boom-"

Everyone made an earth-shattering loud noise, whether it was NASA engineers, Lin Han, or people all over the world who were watching the live broadcast.

It's just that before he could cheer, Aldrich Gerard's expression changed: "What's the matter?"

"Like...... Didn't it blow up?" a somewhat panicked voice came.

"Calculate the orbit now!" said Boldon aloud before Gerald could speak, and the atmosphere in the hall suddenly became oppressive.

"Director, according to the calculations. Although the asteroid has not been blown apart, it has deviated from its original orbit and is expected to pass 200,000 kilometers away from the Earth without an impact event. A few minutes later, the results of the calculations were released, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

In fact, this result is not very ideal, although the asteroid was blown off, but the Earth is not necessarily absolutely safe, variables still exist, and the Earth still has a very low probability of being hit by an asteroid.

But in any case, it can barely be handled.

"Whew—it's thrilling. Bolden looked at Lin Han and smiled reluctantly, looking palpitating.

"No, I'm afraid we're rejoicing too soon. Looking at the big screen, Lin Han's face couldn't help but sink a little.

……