About ESA
The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
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Science & Exploration
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
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Enabling & Support
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Hera
Examining the first test of asteroid deflection, performing the first survey of a binary asteroid system
As part of the world’s first test of asteroid deflection, Hera will perform a detailed post-impact survey of the target asteroid, Dimorphos – the orbiting moonlet of a binary asteroid system known as Didymos. Now that NASA’s DART mission has impacted the moonlet, Hera will turn the grand-scale experiment into a well-understood and repeatable planetary defence technique. Demonstrating new technologies from autonomous navigation around an asteroid to low gravity proximity operations, Hera will be humankind’s first probe to rendezvous with a binary asteroid system and Europe’s flagship Planetary Defender.
Hera Launch: October 2024
Target: Dimorphos
Hera rendezvous: December 2026
- 1081 kg launch mass
- 12 Hera payloads
- 2 Hera CubeSats
- 151 m target asteroid
