Hera performed its first braking maneuver, BRM-1, on October 15, 2026. The European Space Agency (ESA) said the next day that the 93-minute burn performed within required parameters. ESA’s mission account confirmed the maneuver.
NeoTeo previously reported that the maneuver was scheduled for October 15; ESA has now confirmed it took place.
How ESA planned the braking burn
ESA’s technical description called for three hydrazine-based Orbit Control Thrusters to fire continuously. Reaction Control Thrusters were planned to help keep the spacecraft correctly oriented during the burn. ESA described the propulsion plan.
The goal was to reduce Hera’s velocity relative to the Didymos asteroid system by a few hundred meters per second, bringing the spacecraft closer to matching the asteroids’ motion. That figure was ESA’s expected effect before the maneuver. The agency also said telemetry, guidance, navigation and control sensor outputs, ranging, and Doppler data would be used to assess the burn’s direction and magnitude.
Why Hera is heading to Didymos and Dimorphos
NASA’s DART spacecraft struck Dimorphos in September 2022. Hera is designed to examine the asteroid pair and the impact’s aftermath. Gizmodo reported that ground-based observations put Dimorphos’s orbital period around Didymos at 11 hours 23 minutes after the impact, down from 11 hours 55 minutes before it. Gizmodo’s October 19 report attributed those figures to ground-based observations.
What ESA had scheduled next
In its October 16 post, ESA scheduled Hera’s second braking maneuver, BRM-2, for October 22. ESA’s technical notice described that burn as approximately 31 minutes long, followed by three smaller transition maneuvers planned toward the end of October. These steps were part of the planned approach to the asteroid system.
