Europe's Hera spacecraft heads to investigate damaged Didymos asteroid

The Hera spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida as part of an international mission to study asteroid deflection. The mission aims to determine the effectiveness of a previous experiment, where NASA's Dart spacecraft intentionally collided with a small asteroid called Dimorphos. The Hera spacecraft will travel to the asteroid over the next two years to examine the impact's aftermath and gather data on the asteroid's changes in shape, size, and velocity. This test is seen as a crucial step in developing a planetary defense system that could potentially save the Earth from future asteroid threats.