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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A test of the automated navigation system being developed for ESA’s Hera mission. A space-grade camera is imaging a model binary asteroid system in dark conditions representative of deep space illumination.
Hera – named after the Greek goddess of marriage – will be humankind’s first probe to rendezvous with a binary asteroid system, a little understood class making up around 15% of all known asteroids. NASA will first perform a kinetic impact on the smaller of the two Didymos asteroids, then Hera will follow-up with a detailed post-impact survey will turn this grand-scale experiment into a well-understood and repeatable planetary defence technique. Being able to deflect the orbit of an incoming body in this way could one day help prevent a devastating strike on Earth.
This ‘hardware-in-the-loop’ testing is being performed by GMV in Spain, responsible for developing the Hera mission’s guidance, navigation and control system. To see more, watch GMV’s video.