The European Space Agency launched its Hera spacecraft to study an asteroid NASA crashed into two years ago. The mission aims to see if Earth can defend against potential deadly space rocks, but results won't be available until 2026.

SpaceX returned to flight with its Falcon 9 rocket on Monday, sending up the Hera probe for the European Space Agency on its way to a pair of asteroids, but SpaceX and NASA have called off plans to launch the Falcon Heavy later this week on NASA's Europa Clipper mission to Jupiter's moon because of the approaching Hurricane Milton.

Hera mission, which is traveling to asteroid Didymos and its moon Dimorphos as a follow-up to NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, beat weather odds and successfully launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

The European Space Agency’s Hera mission will investigate an asteroid that NASA deliberately struck with another spacecraft in a previous test of humanity’s planetary defense readiness.

A spacecraft was deliberately crashed into an asteroid to see if we could change the course of passing rocks that pose a threat to Earth

The mission is heading out into space to study the impact of NASA's successful high-speed collision with an asteroid in 2022.

The launch of another important mission, NASA's Europa Clipper, is on hold due to Hurricane Milton. Two years ago, a NASA spacecraft smashed into a small asteroid millions of miles from Earth to test a technique that could one day prove useful to deflect an object off a collision course with Earth.