Europe’s Hera probe is tentatively scheduled to launch Monday on a mission to inspect the damage a NASA spacecraft made when it smashed into an asteroid during the first test of Earth’s planetary defenses.

In a scene that sounds straight out of science fiction, the spacecraft deliberately crashed into the pyramid-sized asteroid Dimorphos in 2022, roughly 11 million kilometers from Earth.

The fridge-sized impactor used in the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) successfully knocked the asteroid well off its course.

This demonstrated that the idea worked — humanity may no longer be powerless against potentially planet-killing asteroids that could approach in the future.

But much about the impact remains unknown, including how much damage was done and exactly what the asteroid was like before it was hit.

So the European Space Agency said it was sending Hera to the asteroid to conduct a “crime scene investigation” in the hopes of learning how Earth can best fend off asteroids that pose a threat.