On Nov. 1, NASA's Lucy spacecraft flew by not just its first asteroid, but its first two. The first images returned by Lucy reveal that the small main belt asteroid Dinkinesh is actually a binary pair.
Planetary Sciences
Nov 2, 2023
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NASA on Tuesday celebrated exceeding expectations during a mission to deflect a distant asteroid, in a sci-fi like test of humanity's ability to stop an incoming cosmic object from devastating life on Earth.
Planetary Sciences
Oct 11, 2022
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A specially upgraded radio-frequency chamber in ESA's technical heart is testing what is set to become the smallest radar system to be flown in space, hosted aboard a breadbox-sized spacecraft.
Space Exploration
Nov 17, 2021
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CU Boulder and Lockheed Martin will lead a new space mission to capture the first-ever closeup look at a mysterious class of solar system objects: binary asteroids.
Space Exploration
Sep 10, 2020
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Hera is a candidate ESA mission be presented to ESA's Space19+ meeting next week as part of the Agency's Space Safety programme, where Europe's space ministers will take a final decision on flying it.
Space Exploration
Nov 22, 2019
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The logo for Hera, ESA's proposed asteroid mission for planetary defense, has already reached space, thanks to ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano, who snapped this photo from the cupola of the International Space Station. The Hera ...
Space Exploration
Oct 2, 2019
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Asteroid researchers and spacecraft engineers from the US, Europe and around the world will gather in Rome next week to discuss the latest progress in their common goal: an ambitious double-spacecraft mission to deflect an ...
Space Exploration
Sep 2, 2019
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ESA's planet-defending Hera mission will set a new record in space. The asteroid investigator will not only be the first spacecraft to explore a binary asteroid system – the Didymos pair – but the smaller of these two ...
Space Exploration
Feb 4, 2019
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On Jan. 2, the New Horizons spacecraft made the most distant flyby ever attempted, successfully returning images of the Kuiper Belt object Ultima Thule. While the world is agog at the so-called "snowman" shape of this icy ...
Space Exploration
Jan 15, 2019
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When ESA's planned Hera mission journeys to its target binary asteroid system, it will not be alone. The spacecraft will carry two tiny CubeSats for deployment around – and eventual landing on – the Didymos asteroids. ...
Space Exploration
Jan 7, 2019
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