{"id":37927,"date":"2026-05-08T10:15:59","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T04:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/?p=37927"},"modified":"2026-05-08T10:16:02","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T04:31:02","slug":"esa-jaxa-sign-planetary-defence-pact-team-up-on-ramses-mission-to-apophis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/esa-jaxa-sign-planetary-defence-pact-team-up-on-ramses-mission-to-apophis\/","title":{"rendered":"ESA, JAXA sign planetary defence pact, team up on Ramses mission to Apophis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

BERLIN \u2013 The European Space Agency (ESA) and Japan\u2019s JAXA signed agreements on Tuesday to deepen cooperation in planetary defence, including a joint mission to study the near-Earth asteroid Apophis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher and JAXA President Hiroshi Yamakawa signed a Memorandum of Cooperation and a dedicated Ramses mission agreement at the Italian Embassy in Berlin, in the presence of European and Japanese officials. The event was hosted by Italy\u2019s space agency ASI, after ESA selected OHB Italia as prime contractor for Ramses.<\/p>\n\n\n\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.\u201d Yamakawa added that the cooperation would \u201cadvance international efforts in this field.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ramses mission \u2013 Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety \u2013 will launch in 2028 and rendezvous with Apophis ahead of its close Earth flyby in April 2029. The 375-metre asteroid will pass just 32,000 km above Earth\u2019s surface, closer than geosynchronous satellites, though scientists say there is no risk of impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visible to up to two billion people, the flyby will allow Ramses to observe how Earth\u2019s gravity alters Apophis\u2019s shape and motion, offering rare insights into asteroid behaviour. ESA will lead spacecraft design and operations, while JAXA contributes solar arrays, an infrared imager, and launch aboard its H3 rocket.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BERLIN \u2013 The European Space Agency (ESA) and Japan\u2019s JAXA signed agreements on Tuesday to deepen cooperation in planetary defence, including a joint mission to study the near-Earth asteroid Apophis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-space-news"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ESA_s_Ramses_mission_to_asteroid_Apophis.webp",1344,756,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ESA_s_Ramses_mission_to_asteroid_Apophis-200x200.webp",200,200,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ESA_s_Ramses_mission_to_asteroid_Apophis-675x380.webp",675,380,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ESA_s_Ramses_mission_to_asteroid_Apophis-768x432.webp",750,422,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ESA_s_Ramses_mission_to_asteroid_Apophis-1100x619.webp",750,422,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ESA_s_Ramses_mission_to_asteroid_Apophis.webp",1344,756,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ESA_s_Ramses_mission_to_asteroid_Apophis.webp",1344,756,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ESA_s_Ramses_mission_to_asteroid_Apophis-1200x756.webp",1200,756,true],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ESA_s_Ramses_mission_to_asteroid_Apophis-870x570.webp",870,570,true],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ESA_s_Ramses_mission_to_asteroid_Apophis-600x756.webp",600,756,true],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ESA_s_Ramses_mission_to_asteroid_Apophis-600x600.webp",600,600,true],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ESA_s_Ramses_mission_to_asteroid_Apophis-760x490.webp",760,490,true],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ESA_s_Ramses_mission_to_asteroid_Apophis-550x360.webp",550,360,true],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ESA_s_Ramses_mission_to_asteroid_Apophis-95x65.webp",95,65,true],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ESA_s_Ramses_mission_to_asteroid_Apophis-640x756.webp",640,756,true],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ESA_s_Ramses_mission_to_asteroid_Apophis-96x96.webp",96,96,true],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ESA_s_Ramses_mission_to_asteroid_Apophis-150x84.webp",150,84,true]},"author_info":{"info":["RevoScience"]},"category_info":"Space\/ AstroPhysics<\/a>","tag_info":"Space\/ AstroPhysics","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37927"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37930,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37927\/revisions\/37930"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}