Press Releases — 2024

ESA’s first planetary defence spacecraft has departed planet Earth. The Hera mission is headed to a unique target among the more than 1.3 million known asteroids in our Solar System – the only body to have had its orbit shifted by human action – to solve lingering mysteries associated with its deflection.

Hera, ESA’s first planetary defence mission, is expected to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida, not earlier than Monday, 7 October 2024.

Hera, ESA’s planetary defence mission is set to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida, not earlier than Monday 7 October 2024.

The first stone ceremony of the European Space Agency (ESA) Flyeye Telescope Observatory, planned for Friday, 6 September 2024, has been postponed.Media representatives are cordially invited to join the first stone ceremony of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Flyeye Telescope Observatory with participation of Josef Aschbacher, ESA Director General, Italian Space Agency (ASI) president Teodoro Valente, Minister of Enterprises and Made in Italy Adolfo Urso and President of the Sicily region Renato Schifani. In addition, further experts and high-level representatives of ESA’s Operations and Space Safety Programme as well as Industry partners EIE GROUP, prime contractor for overall construction, and OHB Italia (telescope design) will be present.The event will take place on top of the 1865-metre Monte Mufara in Sicily - Italy, near Piano Battaglia and at the GAL Hassin International Centre of Astronomical Sciences,  Isnello (Province of Palermo).

On 15th April, media are invited to see ESA’s Hera spacecraft in the cleanroom at ESTEC in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. The spacecraft is currently undergoing final testing ahead of launch in October from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Teams at ESA’s European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, are monitoring the natural reentry of the second European Remote Sensing satellite, ERS-2. Media representatives are invited to attend an online briefing on 13 February 2024 to learn more about the spacecraft’s reentry, learn more about reentry operations and about ESA’s efforts to ensure a sustainable future of spaceflight.