While the car-sized spacecraft flew around the Mars system, flight controllers on Earth temporarily lost communication with Hera because the signal was blocked. Though the blackout was planned for the maneuver, Ian Carnelli, the European Space Agency's Hera mission manager, said it was deeply emotional.

The results of Hera's fly-by could ultimately tell us whether Deimos is a captured asteroid or made from debris from a giant impact on Mars.

Space probe Hera passed Mars while on its way to the Didymos asteroid system as part of planetary defence mission. View on euronews

A mission to survey the results of a deliberate crash between an asteroid and a NASA spacecraft has taken stunning images of Mars and its moon Deimos

The European Space Agency (ESA) launched its Hera mission on October 7, 2024, to inspect the damage caused by NASA’s DART mission (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) when it smashed into an asteroid to redirect its orbit.