{"id":790029,"date":"2024-10-07T17:55:53","date_gmt":"2024-10-07T22:55:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=790029"},"modified":"2024-10-07T17:55:53","modified_gmt":"2024-10-07T22:55:53","slug":"european-spacecraft-hera-launches-into-space-to-survey-asteroid-npr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=790029","title":{"rendered":"European spacecraft Hera launches into space to survey asteroid : NPR"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n An image captured from a SpaceX livestream shows the European Space Agency’s Hera spacecraft preparing to lift off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Monday.
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SpaceX\/Screenshot by NPR<\/p>\n

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SpaceX\/Screenshot by NPR<\/p>\n

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A European spacecraft is heading to study an asteroid after NASA purposely knocked it off its course more than two years ago.<\/p>\n

The European Space Agency\u2019s (ESA) Hera spacecraft lifted off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 10:52 a.m. ET on Monday.<\/p>\n

It’s scheduled to conduct a “crash scene investigation,” researchers said.<\/p>\n

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Hera\u2019s mission will focus on the asteroid Dimorphos, where a golf cart-sized spacecraft crashed on Sept. 26, 2022. That mission, called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), shortened Dimorphos’ orbit around Didymos, a bigger asteroid, by 33 minutes, researchers said.<\/p>\n

The successful mission was only a test of the concept \u2014 to see, if an asteroid one day threatens to hit Earth, whether it could be pushed out of harm’s way.<\/p>\n

On a series of flybys, Hera will survey Dimorphos’ mineral makeup and the dust surrounding it, the agency said. Its mission will also help scientists understand how big the crater is that was created during the DART mission, which they say could help in future asteroid deflections. Hera will also enable researchers to get a more accurate estimate of Dimorphos’ mass.<\/p>\n