Out of this world! Brno space company to take part in asteroid defence mission

A Czech space company has confirmed their involvement in a large project looking at protecting the planet from asteroids.

OHB Czechspace will work with the European Space Agency (ESA) on the project called “Hera.”

They confirmed the news on LinkedIn in a post saying:

“OHB Czechspace s.r.o. located in Brno, Czech Republic, has now been awarded with a contract by the Prime Contractor OHB System AG to participate in the defense mission Hera.

OHB Czech Space is a subsidiary of OHB System AG, which works mainly in Germany.

The program they are working on is preparing to protect the Earth from a possible collision with an asteroid with ESA collaborating with NASA on two missions, Dart and Hera.

Pavel Dobeš, CEO of OHB Czechspace told Ceska Televize:

OHB System announced they were working on the project in September but it has now been confirmed that the Brno-based company will be taking part.

They signed a contract with the ESA with a value of 129 million euros.

“I am glad and proud that OHB is also playing a decisive role in the major issue of space safety. This is because the dangers from outer space are real. There are millions of boulders there that could wipe out life on the earth in the event of a collision,” says OHB CEO Marco Fuchs at the time.

Hera will combine the data obtained from NASA’s DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission and ESA’s Hera mission to produce the most accurate knowledge possible from the first demonstration of asteroid deflection technology.