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.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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Hera is a candidate ESA mission be presented to ESA’s Space19+ meeting next week as part of the Agency’s Space Safety programme, where Europe’s space ministers will take a final decision on flying it.
If approved, Hera will be humankind’s first probe to rendezvous with a binary asteroid system, Didymos. The larger of the two asteroids is orbited by its smaller ‘moon’ – Didymoon – which is due to have its orbit shifted by a collision with US spacecraft DART. Hera will fly close to Didymoon, mapping its entire surface down to a resolution of a few metres, and the surface surrounding the DART crater down to >10 cm resolution, through a series of daring flybys. It will also map much of the surface of the primary Didymos asteroid, providing crucial scientific data from two asteroids in a single mission.
This image is taken from the video Hera: ESA’s Planetary Defence Mission.