In 2022 NASA will change an asteroid's trajectory - with a high impact crash of a small probe.

(The binary asteroid  Dynomos.  Image from NASA)

The new commercialized space race is actually a race to put more satellites into orbit, it is essentially a telecommunication space race – more than anything else. With the private space program SpaceX, delayed flight (for the 2nd time), attempting to post micro communication satellites into the Earth's upper orbits, to assist in high bandwidth Internet connections – it is hard to see the relevancy of the over inundation of micro and small satellites into the already crowded upper atmospheres of Earth. Particularly when 'micro' space junk is piling up and is lethal to other satellites, which also includes the International Space Station.  It is also hard to accept the pertinence of the enormous amount of funding allocating to the purposed US Space Force, with comical idealisms aside for the proposal of a Military based Space Command. The core purpose of militarizing Space is sound, but ambiguously aligned with political jargon.  Rather, we should accept that a new Cold War has arrived and our 'leaders' should  engage with the public about allocated funding for this Space Force. As the real threat against humanity is not space pirates, as some wayward Congress member has suggested; it is objects from deep Space, be it asteroids and comets.  Which, if aimed properly  within their trajectories could send our civilization back thousands of years.  In my opinion, the funding should go towards a global defense system with all countries involved in tracking and setting in place combative measures against these Extinction threats – that faces all of humanity. 

NASA in 2022, will be testing the first kinetic impact  probe, to shift the orbit of a binary asteroid Dynomos.

From Space.com 

“NASA's first-ever planetary defense mission is preparing to launch in June 2022, making sure all the pieces are in place for the spacecraft to successfully slam into the small "moon" of a binary asteroid. That mission, called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), will culminate in October 2022 with the much-anticipated impact with the binary asteroid Didymos. But mission staff have plenty to keep them busy between now and then, and they know they will be in the spotlight as the mission continues. That's in part because DART represents NASA's first foray beyond scientific and human spaceflight missions; instead, this mission will test a technology that could theoretically save Earth from a dangerous collision with a threatening asteroid.”