Europe's Hera spacecraft blasts off to investigate asteroid already rammed by NASA

This artist's illustration obtained from NASA on November 4, 2021 shows the DART spacecraft from behind prior to impact at the Didymos binary system. Two years' on, Hera has been launched to investigate the results of DART's mission to ram the asteroid. © NASA/Johns Hopkins APL via AFP

The European Space Agency's Hera spacecraft set off on Monday on its two-year journey towards a small asteroid already rammed by NASA to test whether potentially planet-threatening asteroids can be bumped off course by a well-timed launch.

A spacecraft blasted off Monday to investigate the scene of a cosmic crash.