ESA’s Hera spacecraft launches to help advance planetary defense

Oct 08, 2024

Karah Rucker Anchor/Reporter

By Karah Rucker (Anchor/Reporter), Mirlie Larose (Producer), Mathew Grisham (Digital Producer), Michael Edwards (Video Editor)

A new mission is underway to help protect the Earth from asteroids. The spacecraft “Hera” started its mission to revisit the scene of a cosmic crash when blasted off on Monday, Oct. 7.

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The European Space Agency’s Hera mission is a follow-up to NASA’s “Dart” mission in 2022. During the previous mission, an asteroid was successfully knocked off its orbit by forcing a satellite to crash into it.

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This new ESA mission is part two of the mission. It’s all in an effort to improve planetary defense strategy. Scientists are eager to see how effective the satellite strike was, just in case they need to deflect a real asteroid threat. Hera is now on a two-year journey to the asteroid to study the wreckage.

The ESA is calling the Hera a $400 million “crash scene investigation.” When Hera arrives in 2026, it will closely survey the site for six months and release smaller satellites for closer inspections of the asteroid.

The mission could be critical for future planetary defense.