{"id":474191,"date":"2026-05-08T04:28:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T04:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/474191\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T04:28:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T04:28:13","slug":"esa-and-jaxa-team-up-on-planetary-defence-ramses-mission-to-asteroid-apophis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/474191\/","title":{"rendered":"ESA and JAXA team up on planetary defence, Ramses mission to asteroid Apophis"},"content":{"rendered":"


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The European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) have signed a Memorandum of Cooperation to expand collaboration on planetary defence, alongside a separate agreement covering the Ramses (Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety) mission to the near-Earth asteroid Apophis.<\/p>\n

The agreements were signed on 7 May by ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher and JAXA President Hiroshi Yamakawa at the Embassy of Italy in Berlin, Germany, with European and Japanese institutional and industrial representatives present. The event was hosted in collaboration with the Italian Space Agency (ASI), following ESA\u2019s selection of OHB Italia as prime contractor for the Ramses mission.<\/p>\n

The move builds on a joint statement from November 2024 in which ESA and JAXA said they would expand large-scale cooperation, including in planetary defence.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlanetary defence is, by definition, a global responsibility,\u201d Aschbacher said. \u201cWith today\u2019s signatures, ESA and JAXA are moving decisively from shared intention to concrete implementation, translating commitment into mission\u2011level cooperation. This partnership builds on trust, technical excellence and a shared determination to protect our planet.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn an increasingly complex environment, international cooperation remains a cornerstone of Europe\u2019s approach to space. Together, ESA and JAXA are showing how reliable partners turn ambition into action for the benefit of all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yamakawa added: \u201cWe are pleased to have signed today the Memorandum of Cooperation and the agreement to advance cooperation on planetary defence. We sincerely appreciate ESA and its Member States, including Italy, and expect this cooperation to further advance international efforts in this field.\u201d<\/p>\n

A global effort<\/strong><\/p>\n

Planetary defence focuses on detecting and characterising near-Earth objects, tracking their trajectories, assessing impact risks, and developing mitigation strategies. ESA said closer ESA\u2013JAXA cooperation is intended to support those activities.<\/p>\n

ESA\u2019s role includes its Space Safety programme and the Near-Earth Object Coordination Centre (NEOCC), which monitors asteroid threats and refines orbit predictions. ESA cited its Hera planetary defence mission\u2014on which JAXA is a partner\u2014as an example of ongoing work, with Hera due to arrive later this year at the Didymos binary asteroid system to study the outcome of a kinetic-impact deflection test.<\/p>\n

The Ramses mission to Apophis<\/strong><\/p>\n

ESA said the first major outcome of the new cooperation is collaboration on Ramses, which is planned to launch in 2028 and rendezvous with asteroid (99942) Apophis ahead of its close Earth flyby in April 2029.<\/p>\n

Apophis is around 375 metres across and is expected to pass about 32,000 km above Earth\u2019s surface on Friday 13 April 2029, which ESA said is closer than satellites in geosynchronous orbit and about one tenth of the distance to the Moon.<\/p>\n

ESA said there is no risk of impact, but described the flyby as rare on timescales of 5,000 to 10,000 years for an object of this size. The agencies said the event will provide an opportunity to study how Earth\u2019s gravity affects an asteroid\u2019s shape, surface and motion.<\/p>\n

Under the current division of responsibilities, ESA is to oversee Ramses spacecraft design, integration and operations. JAXA is to provide lightweight solar arrays, an infrared imager, and the launch on its H3 rocket. ESA said the partnership builds on JAXA\u2019s contribution to Hera and existing ESA\u2013JAXA collaborations including EarthCARE and BepiColombo.<\/p>\n

ESA said observations before and after the flyby are expected to improve understanding of asteroid structure and behaviour relevant to future deflection planning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) have signed a Memorandum of Cooperation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474192,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[77],"tags":[32266,18,6145,19,17,15518,207828,133,207829],"class_list":["post-474191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-defence","tag-eire","tag-esa","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jaxa","tag-ramses-mission","tag-science","tag-the-european-space-agency"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116537073050793410","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}