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ESA’s Hera spacecraft completed a major deep-space maneuver on 17 March 2026, but it has not yet reached the asteroid. The burn used 123 kg of hydrazine to change Hera’s velocity by 367 m/s and align its solar-orbit inclination with the Didymos system. ESA said the maneuver also tested systems needed for a separate braking and rendezvous sequence planned for later in 2026.
What Hera’s “braking” maneuver actually did
The March maneuver was a cruise-phase adjustment, not Hera’s final arrival brake. It reshaped the spacecraft’s path around the Sun so its orbit inclination matched that of Didymos, while providing a major test of systems intended for the later approach. ESA reported that the maneuver campaign used 123 kg of onboard hydrazine and changed the spacecraft’s velocity by 367 m/s. Those figures apply to the completed deep-space maneuver, not to the future arrival sequence.
As ESA flight-dynamics team member Francesco Castellini put it: “This is the Hera mission’s largest manoeuvre in terms of fuel consumption, and we used it to test all of the systems that we will need during the braking and rendezvous manoeuvres later this year as we arrive at Didymos.” (ESA, 17 March 2026)
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ESA’s latest operational update, published 17 March 2026, said the timed burns to move Hera from interplanetary cruise into asteroid rendezvous were planned to begin in October, followed by an approach expected to last about three weeks. The agency forecast arrival later in 2026 but did not give an exact date. That is a forecast, not confirmation that Hera has arrived; mission schedules can change.
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ESA had previously forecast an autumn 2026 arrival in October 2024, but the March 2026 update is newer and gives the more current timing: later in the year. (ESA’s March 2026 update; ESA’s October 2024 announcement)
What Hera will study after DART
Hera is ESA’s contribution to an international collaboration on asteroid impact and deflection. NASA’s DART spacecraft deliberately struck Dimorphos on 26 September 2022. Dimorphos is the smaller companion orbiting Didymos, the larger primary asteroid; it was Dimorphos that DART hit. ESA describes it as the first Solar System body whose orbit was measurably shifted by human action.
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Hera will survey the Didymos binary system, focusing especially on Dimorphos and the physical consequences of DART’s impact. Its observations are intended to help scientists measure the asteroid system and investigate the impact crater, surface, mass and outcome—information needed to assess kinetic impact as a possible planetary-defense technique. ESA reported in 2024 that Dimorphos’s orbital period around Didymos had shortened by 33 minutes, nearly 5% of its original value; that was an account of post-DART observations, not a new result from Hera. (ESA Hera mission overview; ESA Hera FAQs; ESA, 7 October 2024)
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Hera carries two CubeSats to make additional close-up investigations of the asteroid system:
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Together with Hera’s survey, these investigations will add detail about the bodies and the impact’s effects. The goal is to improve understanding of how an asteroid responds to a kinetic impact, rather than to treat the March cruise maneuver as the deflection test itself. (ESA Hera mission overview)
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