LOS ANGELES, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- SpaceX launched the Hera mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) to interplanetary transfer orbit on Monday.
The spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 10:52 a.m. Eastern Time. Later SpaceX confirmed Hera's deployment.
Hera is a planetary defense mission that will study the impact of NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission spacecraft had on the Dimorphos asteroid.
Hera will provide valuable data for future asteroid deflection missions and science to help humanity's understanding of asteroid geophysics as well as solar system formation and evolutionary processes.
As part of the world's first test of asteroid deflection, Hera will perform a detailed post-impact survey of the target asteroid, Dimorphos.
Demonstrating new technologies from autonomous navigation around an asteroid to low gravity proximity operations, Hera will be humankind's first probe to rendezvous with a binary asteroid system and Europe's flagship Planetary Defender, according to ESA. ■