The European Space Agency’s (ESA) first global defence spacecraft, Hera, was successfully launched on Monday 7 October aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral spaceport in Florida.
The aim of the Hera probe is to carry out the first detailed study of a “binary” (or double-body) asteroid, Didymos, which orbits a smaller body, Dimorphos. In 2022, Dimorphos became the first object in the Solar System to have its orbit modified by human activity, following the impact of NASA’s...