The European Space Agency's Hera spacecraft is approaching the asteroids Didymos and Dimorphos at 60 kilometers away. Dimorphos was struck by NASA's DART mission in 2022, which shortened the moonlet's orbit around Didymos. DART impacted Dimorphos at 6.6 kilometers per second relative to the target. Hera travels much slower, orbiting the center of gravity of both bodies at 12 centimeters per second. The ESA plans to release detailed results on November 25.
NASA is converting test Mars rovers into a lunar mission called PROMISE. The agency aims to launch the rover in 2028 to explore the lunar south pole for 18 months. PROMISE will use testbed rovers that were troubleshooting problems with the Perseverance and Curiosity rovers, combined with science instruments from the VIPER rover.
Voyager 1 will reach one light-day from Earth on November 18, becoming the first human-made object to achieve this distance.
NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory reentered Earth's atmosphere last week. The spacecraft's Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope captured thousands of images during its mission.