The European Space Agency’s (ESA) planetary defense mission Hera has completed its first major maneuver since its successful launch in October and is positioned to get on target with the help of Mars’ gravity.

When Hera reaches Mars, it will use Mars’ gravity to target Dimorphos, a small satellite object of the asteroid Didymos.

What happened during the DART mission?

This ESA mission will be carried out by NASA in 2022. Considered a continuation of the DART mission. With the DART mission, NASA tested changing the orbit of a spacecraft by crashing it into an asteroid, and it was successful. The purpose of the DART mission was to investigate whether it was possible to intervene and redirect an asteroid that was at risk of hitting Earth.

Still, scientists need more information to further investigate DART’s impact and better understand the asteroid’s internal structure. The Hera mission, which comes into play at this point, aims to head to Dimorphos, examine the asteroid more closely and detail the effects of the impact.

Hera will reach Dimorphos by the end of 2026

As part of the mission, two thruster fire maneuvers took place on October 23 and November 6 to alter Hera’s course towards Mars. Sylvain Lodiot, ESA’s Hera Spacecraft Operations Manager, explained that such deep space maneuvers are usually performed in stages, with a large burn completing the main work and then a smaller correction maneuver to complete the orbit.

Hera will continue moving towards Mars after making her route more precise with a minor correction maneuver in November. The spacecraft should reach Dimorphos by the end of 2026As it passes Mars, it will also examine the Deimos moon, located about 300 kilometers away, and make scientific observations.