Earth-bound threats beware: a joint strike force of SpaceX and NASA hardware will launch the first-ever experiment in 2022 to deflect an asteroid through a high-speed spacecraft collision.

NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, will ride on a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at a cost of $69 million, the agency announced Thursday. It's expected to launch in June of that year.

As an asteroid named Didymos flies within 7 million miles of Earth – for reference, the moon is 240,000 miles and the sun 93 million miles away – the spacecraft will intercept one of its small moons for the experiment. The technique designed to deflect asteroids away from Earth is known as a "kinetic impactor."

The launch contract is managed by the Launch Services Program at Kennedy Space Center as part of NASA's planetary defense office. It adds a unique mission to SpaceX's portfolio, which mostly includes commercial payloads and resupply missions to the International Space Station.

"Thanks on behalf of the SpaceX team," Elon Musk tweeted Thursday. "We ♥️♥️♥️ NASA!"

DART's announcement came on a good day for SpaceX: a Falcon Heavy rocket launched from KSC's pad 39A at 6:35 p.m. with a commercial communications satellite, successfully delivering it to orbit 35 minutes later. Along the way, all three of its boosters landed on a mix of Cape Canaveral pads and the Of Course I Still Love You drone ship.

Contact Emre Kelly at aekelly@floridatoday.com or 321-242-3715. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @EmreKelly.