The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Hera mission was successfully launched on 7th October aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida. This groundbreaking mission aims to assess the feasibility of deflecting hazardous asteroids on a collision course with Earth, creating a repeatable strategy for potential future threats.
Hera will gather critical data from the Didymos binary asteroid system, which includes the 780-meter main asteroid Didymos and its 150-meter moonlet, Dimorphos. This mission follows NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), which, in September 2022, marked humanity’s first attempt at asteroid deflection by colliding with Dimorphos and altering its orbit.
The Hera spacecraft will travel to Dimorphos to collect vital information about the asteroid’s mass, composition, and structure—key elements in understanding the impact of DART’s kinetic collision. This mission is part of the international Asteroid Impact & Deflection Assessment (AIDA) collaboration and aims to turn the DART experiment into a well-understood and repeatable planetary defense technique.
In addition to studying the binary system, Hera will conduct the most detailed exploration of binary asteroids to date. Despite comprising 15% of all known asteroids, these systems have never been thoroughly examined. Hera will also showcase advanced technology demonstrations, including the deployment of ESA’s first deep-space CubeSats, designed for close-up observation and data collection, and an ambitious test of ‘self-driving’ capabilities based on vision-based navigation.
The Didymos binary system serves as a prototype for understanding the risks posed by thousands of hazardous asteroids. Hera is set to reach Didymos in October 2026, completing a two-year cruise phase and positioning itself 195 million kilometres from Earth.
Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture comprising Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), has played a pivotal role in providing essential technologies for the Hera spacecraft. Thales Alenia Space in Spain developed the communications subsystem, enabling control and tracking of the spacecraft from distances of up to 500 million kilometres, while also facilitating the transmission of vital data back to Earth. In Italy, the team created the state-of-the-art Deep Space Transponder. Meanwhile, Thales Alenia Space in Belgium focused on the development of Travelling Wave Tube Amplifiers (TWTA) and the Power Conditioning and Distribution Unit (PCDU), ensuring the spacecraft receives power throughout its mission.
As the Hera mission progresses, it will not only enhance our understanding of asteroid deflection but also fortify humanity’s preparedness against potential asteroid threats.
