The European Space Agency’s Hera spacecraft is on its way to do follow-up observations of Dimorphos, two years after an earlier probe knocked the mini-asteroid into a different orbital path around a bigger space rock.
Scientists say the close-up observations that Hera is due to make millions of miles from Earth, starting in 2026, will help them defend our planet from future threats posed by killer asteroids.
“Hera’s ability to closely study its asteroid target will be just what is needed for operational planetary defense,” Richard Moissl, who heads ESA’s Planetary Defense Office, said today in a news release. “You can imagine a scenario where a reconnaissance mission is dispatched rapidly, to assess if any follow-up deflection action is needed.”
The car-sized probe lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 10:52 a.m. ET (7:52 a.m. PT) today, just as Hurricane Milton was approaching from the Gulf of Mexico. The day before the launch, forecasters put the chances of acceptable weather at just 15 percent.
Nevertheless, SpaceX persisted.