Liftoff: European Space Agency Hera Asteroid Mission on SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket

Liftoff: European Space Agency Hera Asteroid Mission on SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket

Hera Mission spacecraft is launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at Cape Canaveral in Florida

View from Falcon 9's second stage during the Hera mission launch

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with Hera spacecraft at Cape Canaveral in Florida before launch

The European Space Agency Hera mission lifted off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida, USA, on October 7, 2024, at 10:52 local time (16:52 CEST, 14:52 UTC). The Hera spacecraft was successfully placed on an interplanetary transfer orbit. Hera is the European Space Agency’s first "planetary defense" mission. It will travel to a unique target among the 1.3 million asteroids in our Solar System—the only body to have had its orbit shifted by human action—to address lingering unknowns associated with its deflection.

Hera will carry out the first detailed survey of a ‘binary’—or double-body—asteroid, 65803 Didymos, that is orbited by a smaller body, Dimorphos. Hera’s main focus will be Dimorphos. Its orbit around the main body was previously altered by NASA’s kinetic-impacting DART spacecraft. Launched in 2021, NASA's DART spacecraft successfully collided with Dimorphos on September 26, 2022, at about 11 million kilometers (6.8 million miles; 0.074 astronomical units; 29 lunar distances) from Earth.

By sharpening scientific understanding of this ‘kinetic impact’ technique of asteroid deflection, it is hoped that the Hera Mission can "turn the experiment into a well-understood and repeatable technique for protecting Earth from an asteroid on a collision course."

The Hera Mission has 18 participating European Space Agency (ESA) Member States plus Japan (supplying the TIRI instrument). Notably German industry is leading the mission, while Italy is providing the propulsion and Spain and Romania developed Hera’s innovative guidance, navigation and control system. The Hera Science Team involves scientists from all ESA Member States, Japan, the US and other non-European countries.

Learn more about the Hera Mission:

https://www.esa.int/Space_Safety/Hera

Image Credit: SpaceX/ESA - S. Corvaja

Capture Date: Oct. 7, 2024

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