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
Go to topicThank you for liking
You have already liked this page, you can only like it once!
Note: these animations show a previous version of the Hera spacecraft
Hera would be the first-ever spacecraft to visit a double asteroid. The asteroid system - named Didymos - is typical of the thousands that pose an impact risk to our planet, and even the smaller of the two would be big enough to destroy an entire city if it were to collide with Earth. Hera will help ESA to find out if it would be possible to deflect such an asteroid. The mission will revolutionise our understanding of asteroids and how to protect ourselves from them.
This set of 3D renderings were created as part of the video Hera: ESA's planetary defence mission, in which astrophysicist and Queen guitarist Brian May tells the story of this ambitious proposed ESA mission.
Hera will be presented at ESA's Space19+ meeting this November, where Europe's space ministers will take a final decision on flying the mission, as part of the Agency's broader planetary defence initiatives that aim to protect European and global citizens.
See the full video here