MIAMI: Europe´s Hera probe launched on Monday on a mission to inspect the damage done by a Nasa spacecraft when it smashed into an asteroid during the first test of Earth´s planetary defences.
Despite fears that an approaching hurricane could delay the launch, the probe blasted off on a SpaceX rocket into cloudy skies from Cape Canaveral in the US state of Florida just before 11:00 am local time (1500 GMT).
Hera´s mission is to investigate the aftermath of Nasa´s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), which deliberately crashed into the Dimorphos asteroid in 2022 roughly 11 million kilometres from Earth.
The fridge-sized DART spacecraft successfully knocked the asteroid well off course, demonstrating that humanity may no longer be powerless against potentially planet-killing asteroids that could head our way.
The European Space Agency (ESA) said the Hera craft will investigate what it has called the “crime scene” in the hopes of learning how Earth can best fend off future space rocks. The launch was met with applause from teams on the ground, according to an ESA broadcast. Poor weather ahead of Hurricane Milton had put the launch into doubt, with SpaceX warning on Sunday that there was only a 15 percent chance of a launch.