The ESA spacecraft embarked on a two-year journey to the asteroid Didymos and its moonlet Dimorphos on Monday.

The news was a relief for Fitzsimmons and the entire Hera team.

ESA's Hera spacecraft designed to assess NASA's experiment to deflect an asteroid has launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. At 14:52 GMT, the robotic probe lifted off atop a Falcon 9 rocket to begin its three-year mission.

Europe’s first planetary defense mission — a follow-up to NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test — will launch as early as next week.

The European Space Agency’s Hera mission will investigate an asteroid that NASA deliberately struck with another spacecraft in a previous test of humanity’s planetary defense readiness.

Hera, the Europe's ESA space mission to study a rogue asteroid that was deflected by NASA, kicks off in early October 2024.

SpaceX will launch Europe's Hera spacecraft on Monday (Oct. 7) toward the asteroid Dimorphos for a post-impact evaluation, and you can watch the liftoff live.

SpaceX launched the European Space Agency's Hera spacecraft on Monday to see a test NASA performed in 2022 to knock the moonlet off its orbit from an asteroid actually worked.

In humanity’s latest bid to avoid going the way of the dinosaurs, a European spacecraft soared away from the coast of Florida on Monday. The mission, Hera, will visit an asteroid that NASA deliberately struck with another spacecraft two years ago.