ESA reported on October 27 that Hera’s two braking burns succeeded, leaving the spacecraft with a relative speed of 20 m/s to the Didymos asteroid system. The agency also said Hera’s Asteroid Framing Camera had resolved Didymos and its moon Dimorphos separately from 1,280 km away. Dimorphos occupied about one pixel in the image. ESA reported the braking result and first separate image.
What Hera’s braking maneuvers achieved
The 20 m/s figure is Hera’s speed relative to the target asteroids. It is the confirmed result of the two-burn sequence, rather than a speed measured relative to Earth.
A 20minutos report said the first burn, BRM-1, took place on October 15 and lasted 93 minutes; it reported that BRM-2 took place on October 22 and lasted about 31 minutes. NeoTeo previously covered the plan for the October 15 maneuver.
What Hera’s first separate image showed
Hera distinguished the two bodies in an image taken 1,280 km from the pair. At that distance, Dimorphos appeared about one pixel wide. The image marks an early view of the system, while the mission’s closer examination of the impact site is still ahead.
Didymos is 780 m in diameter, and Dimorphos measures 151 m across. The two asteroids are an average of 1.15 km apart. NASA’s DART spacecraft struck Dimorphos on September 26, 2022, at 6.1 km/s; ESA says the impact shortened Dimorphos’s orbital period by about 33 minutes.
What Hera will investigate next
Hera’s planned close-up survey will examine the DART impact site and Dimorphos’s response. ESA says the investigation will look at whether the collision created a crater or reshaped the asteroid, as well as its composition, internal structure, and mass. Those measurements will help researchers assess how a kinetic impact changes an asteroid, a central question for planetary defense.
ESA said it expected detailed images of Dimorphos on November 25, 2026. That date was a planned imaging milestone in the agency’s October 27 update.
