Updated on June 25, 2026 with the latest mission news following Hera’s launch.
The Hera mission, developed by the European Space Agency (ESA), represents a groundbreaking effort in planetary defense and asteroid science. Hera launched on 7 October 2024 from Cape Canaveral, and is now well into its two-year cruise toward the Didymos binary asteroid system. The mission is part of the larger Asteroid Impact & Deflection Assessment (AIDA) collaboration with NASA, evaluating the kinetic impactor technique’s effectiveness, demonstrated by NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, in altering the trajectory of potentially hazardous asteroids.
Hera’s primary focus is on the binary asteroid system Didymos, specifically its moonlet Dimorphos, which was impacted by DART in September 2022. This mission is not only pivotal for validating asteroid deflection methods but also for advancing our understanding of asteroid characteristics and behavior.
A critical aspect of Hera’s success hinges on its communication and instrumentation systems, and Anywaves is proud to be contributing two distinct pieces of flight hardware to the mission: the S-Band Antennas that carry the radio link between the Hera mothership and its CubeSats, and the radar payload electronics for JuRa, the low-frequency radar carried by the Juventas CubeSat, developed by EmTroniX prior to its merger with Anywaves.
As of mid-2026, Hera is on track to reach Didymos in November 2026, a month earlier than originally planned, thanks to a more aggressive braking maneuver plan made possible by the spacecraft’s strong performance so far. Let’s deep dive into the mission history and specifications, before taking a closer look at Anywaves’ contribution, the mission timeline, and what comes next.
Background and Context of the Hera Mission
Project History: AIDA and the Joint Effort with NASA
The Hera mission is part of the broader Asteroid Impact & Deflection Assessment (AIDA) project, the first operational program aimed at testing a method of deflecting near-Earth asteroids. Initiated in 2013, AIDA was a collaborative effort between scientists supported by NASA and ESA. The project’s objective is to test the use of an impactor-type device to alter the trajectory of an asteroid that could potentially collide with Earth.
AIDA planned to send two spacecraft to the binary asteroid (65803) Didymos: NASA’s DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) impactor, designed to crash at high speed into the smaller of the two asteroids, and ESA’s AIM (Asteroid Impact Monitoring) orbiter, intended to measure the impact’s effects. However, in late 2016, ESA decided to abandon AIM due to insufficient financial support from its member states. NASA continued with the DART project, incorporating the LICIACube nano-satellite to capture and transmit the first 100 seconds of the impact event.
Renaissance of the European Project
In 2017, prompted by several ESA member states, ESA revived the studies for a replacement of AIM, naming the new mission Hera, after the Greek goddess of marriage. Hera was designed to fulfill all the objectives initially assigned to AIM while optimizing the mission components. Hera’s primary goal is to study the effects of the DART impact on Dimorphos, the smaller moonlet of Didymos, four years after the collision.
The Hera mission was approved by the ESA Ministerial Council in November 2019. In September 2020, ESA awarded the construction of the spacecraft to a consortium of companies led by OHB.
The Hera Mission: Objectives and Importance
Primary Goal: Testing Planetary Defence
The main objective of the Hera mission is to evaluate the kinetic impactor method for deflecting a near-Earth object that threatens to crash into Earth. This deflection method involves modifying the trajectory of the asteroid by launching a spacecraft at a speed of a few kilometers per second. Of all the methods, this is the most mature because it relies on the use of available and cost-effective spacecraft technologies. To fulfill this objective, Hera must determine:
- How much momentum transfer depends on the density, porosity, and characteristics of the asteroid’s surface and internal structure.
- What proportion of the kinetic energy is transferred in the fragmentation and restructuring of the asteroid or in the kinetic energy of the ejected materials.
Secondary Goal: Understanding Asteroid Properties
Beyond planetary defense, the Hera Mission will also conduct detailed scientific investigations of Dimorphos. The spacecraft will examine the asteroid’s physical and compositional characteristics, including its mass, density, and structural integrity.
Hera will be the first mission to measure the subsurface and internal structures of an asteroid using the JuRa low-frequency radar on board the CubeSat Juventas, whose radar payload electronics were developed by EmTroniX, now part of Anywaves. The entire moon, Dimorphos, will be mapped with a spatial resolution of a few meters and the vicinity of the impact with a resolution of 10 centimeters. The mass of Dimorphos will be estimated with high accuracy, allowing a direct estimate of the momentum transfer efficiency from the DART impact.
Technological Innovation: Paving the Way for Future Missions
Hera will also serve as a platform for testing new space exploration technologies. This includes the deployment of two CubeSats, Milani and Juventas, which will carry out specific tasks such as probing the asteroid’s interior and capturing high-resolution images of its surface. These endeavors will test novel instruments and operational techniques in the challenging environment of a small body’s low-gravity surface.
Moreover, the mission will explore advanced navigation and operational strategies for maneuvering around and interacting with asteroids. This is critical for the success of future missions that may require close-up interaction with asteroids, whether for scientific exploration, resource utilization, or planetary defense purposes.
Spacecraft Design and Payload
Hera Spacecraft
The Hera satellite is cubic, measuring 1.6 × 1.6 × 1.7 meters, and has a mass of approximately 1128 kg. Its energy is provided by solar panels with an area of 13 m². The spacecraft is stabilized on three axes, utilizing reaction wheels, gyroscopes, star trackers, solar sensors, and two Asteroid Framing Cameras (AFC). Attitude guidance is managed through the Planetary Altimeter (PALT).
CubeSats: Milani and Juventas
Milani CubeSat
Milani aims to take images and measure characteristics of dust and surface composition. It carries two primary instruments:
- The ASPECT hyperspectral imaging spectrometer, which operates in visible and near-infrared light (0.5 to 2.5 microns), with a spatial resolution of 2 meters at 10 kilometers and a spectral resolution of less than 40 nanometers.
- The VISTA thermogravimeter, responsible for detecting dust, volatiles, and light organic materials.
Juventas CubeSat
Juventas aims to determine the geophysical characteristics of Dimorphos. It carries the following instruments:
- The JuRa radar, operating at 50–70 MHz with a spatial resolution of 10 to 15 meters, is the first instrument to probe the inner layers of an asteroid. Its complete radar payload electronics — signal generation, acquisition, and processing — were developed by EmTroniX, now part of Anywaves.
- The GRASS gravimeter, with a dynamic range of 5 x 10⁻⁴ and a sensitivity of 5 x 10⁻⁷.
- A camera and a radio link with the mother ship, used to measure the Doppler effect and determine the characteristics of the gravitational field.
Both CubeSats are built around a similar platform, are 3-axis stabilized, and have a cold gas propulsion system. They communicate with the mothership in S-band and are equipped with accelerometers for surface property determination.
Anywaves’ Contribution: Antennas and Radar Electronics Onboard
Hera is one of the missions where Anywaves’ combined heritage, spanning antenna design and RF payload electronics, is most visible. Two flight items on this mission trace back to our two predecessor companies: the S-Band TT&C antennas supplied by Anywaves, and the JuRa radar payload electronics developed by EmTroniX. Following our 2026 merger, both are now part of a single Anywaves flight heritage.
S-Band Antennas: Carrying the Radio Link
Anywaves is very proud that our S-Band Antennas are a critical component of Hera’s CubeSat communication system. Given the mission’s specific needs, Anywaves was tasked with creating antennas that could support reliable data transmission between the CubeSats and the mothership.
Technical Specifications and Adaptations
To meet the specific needs of the mission, Anywaves provided 12 TT&C (Telemetry, Tracking, and Command) S-band antennas. These antennas operate at a shifted frequency of 2430 MHz, with a bandwidth of 40 MHz, optimizing the communication channel’s performance and reliability. This frequency shift and bandwidth allocation were critical adaptations to ensure the antennas could handle the data volume and provide timely and accurate information from the CubeSats to the Hera mothership.
Addressing Technical Challenges
The development and integration of these antennas involved addressing several technical challenges. First, the antennas needed to be highly reliable over the mission’s duration, capable of withstanding the harsh conditions of space, including extreme temperatures and radiation. Anywaves’ expertise in antenna design and space-grade manufacturing processes was crucial in meeting these requirements.
Furthermore, the antennas were designed to ensure compatibility with the spacecraft’s other systems and constraints, such as power consumption, size, and weight limitations. Anywaves was able to customize the antennas’ design for these specific mission requirements.
Contribution to Mission Success
Anywaves’ S-band antennas are essential for maintaining the radio link between the Hera mothership and its CubeSats, Milani and Juventas. They enable the transmission of commands (such as position, velocity, and action commands) from the Hera mothership to the CubeSats. Additionally, they send back housekeeping status data and scientific payload data, including images and measurements, from the CubeSats.
The Hera mothership, in turn, is responsible for relaying all collected scientific data back to Earth.
JuRa Radar Electronics: Seeing Inside an Asteroid
Anywaves’ second contribution to Hera came through EmTroniX, which joined Anywaves in 2026. For the Juventas CubeSat, EmTroniX designed and delivered the core electronics for JuRa (Juventas Radar), the smallest radar system ever flown in space.
Mounted on the Juventas CubeSat, JuRa is designed to:
- Transmit radar signals via four 1.5-meter deployable antennas, longer than the Juventas spacecraft itself.
- Penetrate up to 100 meters deep into the Dimorphos asteroid, mapping its internal structure in 3D.
- Operate in the extreme radiation environments encountered in deep space.
- Set records as the first radar to perform a subsurface scan of an asteroid, on a CubeSat that will also attempt the smallest-spacecraft landing on a celestial body.
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A Compact, Collaborative Instrument
JuRa’s architecture is the result of a robust international collaboration. The radar instrument itself was designed by France’s Institut de Planétologie et d’Astrophysique de Grenoble (IPAG) at the Université Grenoble Alpes and Technical University Dresden, with EmTroniX in Luxembourg delivering the radar electronics, FSatCom in the Czech Republic providing the customised FPGA for signal processing, and Astronika in Poland contributing the deployable antennas. CNES supported the work at both the financial and operational level.
EmTroniX’s electronics generate the high-speed signal transmission and handle acquisition and processing of the returning echoes, all within a footprint that fits inside a 10 cm cubic unit — a significant achievement in miniaturised deep-space instrumentation.
Contribution to Mission Success
JuRa’s radar soundings will let scientists determine whether Dimorphos is a rubble pile, a solid monolith, or a rocky core surrounded by smaller fragments, information that feeds directly into the mission’s planetary-defence conclusions about how an asteroid responds to a kinetic impact. It is this electronics package, built to operate reliably the first time, with no opportunity for in-flight repair, that turns JuRa’s radar concept into usable science data.
Mission Conduct and Timeline
DART Mission Overview
The American DART mission, launched on 24 November 2021 by a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Launch Station, reached the binary asteroid (65803) Didymos on 26 September 2022. It impacted Dimorphos at a relative speed of about 6.6 km/s. The impact was expected to change the orbital period of Dimorphos around Didymos by at least 73 seconds, a change observable by terrestrial telescopes.
Hera Mission Timeline
Hera launched on 7 October 2024 on a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, beginning a two-year cruise toward the Didymos binary asteroid system. Since then, the mission has reached several key milestones:
- October–November 2024: Hera performed its first deep-space maneuvers shortly after launch, and briefly activated the Milani and Juventas CubeSats in deep space for the first time to confirm their health.
- March 2025: Hera completed a gravity-assist flyby of Mars, passing within 5,000 km of the planet and observing its moon Deimos from as close as 300 km, a trajectory that shaved months off the journey to Didymos.
- October–November 2025: Hera passed through the tail of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, and ESA announced the spacecraft was on track to reach Didymos in November 2026, a month earlier than originally planned.
- February–March 2026: Hera completed its second and largest deep-space maneuver, burning 123 kg of hydrazine fuel over three main engine burns to change its velocity by 367 m/s, aligning its orbit with Didymos.
- October 2026 (upcoming): Hera will begin a series of precision braking maneuvers to shift from cruise phase into rendezvous with the Didymos system.
- November 2026 (upcoming): Hera is expected to arrive at Didymos, beginning at least six months of investigation, the first rendezvous with a binary asteroid in history.
Once at Didymos, the mission will proceed through five stages:
- Early characterization phase
- Deployment phase of the two nano-satellites
- Detailed characterization phase
- Close observation phase
- Landing of both Milani and Juventas on Dimorphos, with a potential final experiment involving a landing on Didymos by the main spacecraft
Conclusion
The Hera mission is an important step forward in planetary defense and asteroid science. By testing the kinetic impactor technique, the mission aims to find an effective way to deflect potentially dangerous asteroids. Hera will closely study the binary asteroid system Didymos, focusing on its moonlet Dimorphos, to understand the impact of NASA’s DART mission.
Anywaves is proud to support this mission with two distinct contributions. Our S-band antennas maintain the radio link between the Hera mothership and its CubeSats, Milani and Juventas, enabling the transmission of commands and the reception of housekeeping status and scientific data. Meanwhile, the JuRa radar payload electronics, developed by EmTroniX prior to its merger with Anywaves, give Hera its ability to see beneath the surface of an asteroid for the first time, a capability central to the mission’s planetary defense objectives.
Hera launched on 7 October 2024 and is now en route to Didymos, with arrival expected in November 2026 followed by at least six months of detailed study. The collaboration between ESA, NASA, and Anywaves highlights the importance of teamwork in advancing space exploration and planetary defense. The knowledge gained from the Hera mission will contribute to future missions and improve our ability to protect Earth from asteroid threats.
If you are designing a mission that needs flight-proven antennas or RF payload electronics, get in touch with our team.
