missions

Hera

ESA Hera is a planetary defence mission to the Didymos binary asteroid system. Launched October 7, 2024; Mars flyby March 12, 2025 for gravity assist and instrument calibration; Didymos rendezvous targeted November 2026. Prime contractor OHB SE. Carries HyperScout H (hyperspectral, 650-950 nm), Asteroid Framing Camera (AFC), PALT altimeter, TIRI thermal IR (JAXA), and deploys Juventas and Milani CubeSats. HyperScout H is the EO-heritage catalogue anchor.

Hera is an ESA planetary-defence mission to the Didymos binary asteroid system, launched 7 October 2024 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Prime contractor is OHB SE. The spacecraft completed a Mars gravity-assist flyby on 12 March 2025, which was also used for instrument calibration including Earth-view imaging by HyperScout H. Didymos rendezvous is targeted for late 2026, approximately one month earlier than originally planned.^[1]

Hera carries four instruments on the main spacecraft. HyperScout H is a hyperspectral imager contributed by cosine, covering 650 to 950 nm according to its peer-reviewed instrument paper^[2] (the mission website lists 400 to 1000 nm^[3]; the narrower range from the 2025 Space Science Reviews paper is treated as the instrument design specification). The Asteroid Framing Camera (AFC), provided by JenaOptronik, delivers visible imaging. PALT is a planetary altimeter and lidar. TIRI is a thermal infrared imager contributed by JAXA. Two CubeSats, Juventas and Milani, are planned for deployment at Didymos to conduct radar sounding and dust-environment measurements.^[3]^[4]

The primary mission objective is characterising the physical properties and surface composition of Didymoon (Dimorphos) following the DART impact in 2022, supporting planetary-defence assessment. HyperScout H is an EO-heritage instrument adapted for asteroid science; its catalogue relevance lies in this instrument lineage.^[2]

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