Westcott based European Astrotech has achieved another significant milestone by successfully fuelling the European Space Agency's (ESA) Hera mission on behalf of OHB Germany.
The fuelling took place at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in coastal Florida, leading to the launch on October 7th. This marked the 23rd and final launch for this particular Falcon 9 first stage booster, which previously launched Crew-1, Crew-2, SXM-8, CRS-23, IXPE, Transporter-4, Transporter-5, Globalstar FM15, ISI EROS C-3, Korea 425, Maxar 1, ASBM, and 10 Starlink missions.
The Hera mission is a crucial planetary defence initiative aimed at studying the impact of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) on the Dimorphos asteroid. The Falcon 9 had previously launched the DART mission in November 2021.
ESA's Hera spacecraft is now on a multimillion-mile journey across the solar system, expected to reach Dimorphos in 2026, to further analyse the effects of the DART mission.
Image - 7000km from Earth en route to Mars - the little square in the top left is Hera
