Hera Program

ESA’s Hera mission is an active planetary-defence mission launched on 7 October 2024 to perform a detailed post-impact survey of the Didymos binary asteroid system and Dimorphos, where NASA’s DART spacecraft changed the moonlet’s orbit. Hera will measure the bodies’ masses, composition, and impact effects to make kinetic asteroid deflection a well-understood and repeatable technique, with international participation including NASA scientists.