LAUNCH OF ESA’S HERA TO DIDYMOS/DIMORPHOS, Oct 7, 2024, CCSFS, 10:52 am ET

The European Space Agency’s Hera spacecraft is scheduled to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, FL on October 7, 2024 at 10:52 am ET. The launch window is open until October 27.

Hera — named after the Greek goddess of marriage — will travel to the double asteroid Didymos/Dimorphos that was the target of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) in October 2022 to examine the aftereffects of DART’s impact of Dimorphos.  It will arrive there in 2026.

More information is available in Hera’s press kit.

ESA will livestream the launch on ESA WebTV, ESA YouTube and on ESA’s X, and LinkedIn accounts.