LICIACube: THE CLOSE-UP OBSERVATION OF THE DART IMPACT

"LICIACube - the Light Italian Cubesat for Imaging of Asteroids" is a 6U CubeSat, managed by the Italian Space Agency (ASI), that witnessed in situ the DART impact on Dimorphos. LICIACube was hosted as a piggyback during the interplanetary cruise and was released 15 days before the DART impact, on its autonomous path towards the target. After commissioning phase and braking and correction maneuvers LICIACube approached the target and performed its scientific phase during the asteroid's fly-by. After that, LICIACube downloaded the obtained images to Earth: the Ground Segment was based on the Argotec Mission Control Centre, antennas of the NASA Deep Space Network and data archiving and processing, managed at the ASI Space Science Data Center.