SpaceX successfully launched the European Space Agency's Hera spacecraft from Florida yesterday. The car-sized spacecraft will investigate the effects of NASA's 2022 Double Asteroid Redirection Test, which impacted Dimorphos, a 495-foot-wide moon orbiting the larger asteroid Didymos.
Hera will embark on a two-year journey before reaching its orbit of the Didymos-Dimorphos system. The spacecraft aims to conduct detailed observations of the crater left by DART and analyze the asteroid’s internal structure, focusing on its composition, gravity, and mass. Hera will first test its scientific instruments by observing Earth and the moon, followed by a gravity-assist flyby of Mars in March. When it reaches Didymos-Dimorphos in late 2026, it will be about 121 million miles from Earth.
The collaborative mission between NASA and ESA is aimed at developing future asteroid deflection techniques to protect Earth from potentially hazardous asteroids. Scientists have located over 36,000 near-Earth asteroids, of which roughly 11,000 are 460 feet or larger in diameter. Follow Hera's path here.
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