Europe’s Hera Asteroid Mission Lifts Off Ahead of Hurricane Milton Written 8 October 2024

Ars Technica reports, “Two years ago, a NASA spacecraft smashed into a small asteroid millions of miles from Earth to test a technique that could one day prove useful to deflect an object off a collision course with Earth. The European Space Agency launched a follow-up mission Monday to go back to the crash site and see the damage done. The nearly $400 million (363 million euro) Hera mission, named for the Greek goddess of marriage, will investigate the aftermath of a cosmic collision between NASA's DART spacecraft and the skyscraper-size asteroid Dimorphos on September 26, 2022.”
Full Story (Ars Technica)

Video

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches ESA's Hera asteroid mission from Cape Canaveral (Launch at 27:08 mark)
(The LaunchPad; YouTube)