SpaceX delighted fans with a stunning image of Earth, taken during the initial phase of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Hera mission, which launched on Monday.
This striking photograph (shown below) captures the Falcon 9 rocket’s upper stage with Earth looming in the background.
View from Falcon 9’s second stage during the Hera mission pic.twitter.com/a4Qrgg6Pp6
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 7, 2024
The Hera mission was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, initiating its journey to an interplanetary transfer orbit.
As a planetary defense initiative, Hera is tasked with assessing the impact of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission. DART reached a significant milestone in September 2022 by colliding a spacecraft with an asteroid named Dimorphos to determine whether the encounter would change its trajectory. The results confirmed that the asteroid’s path was indeed altered, which is crucial for further developing strategies to redirect potentially hazardous asteroids that could threaten Earth.
Hera will conduct a study of Dimorphos from afar to collect more data that will enhance scientists’ understanding of the asteroid’s composition and the results of the DART mission. This research could provide invaluable insights into asteroid geophysics and the origins of our solar system.
This launch marked the 23rd mission of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 first-stage booster, which has previously supported a variety of missions, including Crew-1, Crew-2, and multiple Starlink launches.
Due to the additional performance needs to position Hera on its trajectory, SpaceX opted not to recover the first-stage booster, which was instead used in orbit.
