Hera is a planetary defense mission to a near-Earth binary asteroid system led by the European Space Agency (ESA) in collaboration with JAXA, who will contribute the thermal imager and knowledge of asteroid science – the heritage of Hayabusa2. Along with NASA’s DART (Double-Asteroid Redirection Test) mission, the technology required for planetary defense will be demonstrated for the first time in history, in addition to investigating planetary formation and evolution processes.