Remarks from PDCO
Kelly E. Fast
Dr. Kelly E. Fast, the NASA Planetary Defense Officer (Acting), will say a few words.
For the past several decades, NASA has engaged in studying near-Earth Objects, or NEOs, which are asteroids and comets that orbit the Sun and come within 30 million miles of Earth’s orbit. The study of NEOs can help further scientific understanding of the birth and formation of our solar system, but some NEOs are on orbital paths that pose potential impact hazards with our planet. Thus, NASA established the Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) in 2016 to manage the agency’s diverse and rapidly growing efforts in the “applied planetary science” of Planetary Defense.
https://science.nasa.gov/planetary-defense-overview/