The European Space Agency and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Ramses planetary defence spacecraft was powered on for the first time by prime contractor OHB Italia, ESA reported on 23 September 2026. The Core Module, holding the main electronics, is being assembled at OHB Italia's Milan cleanroom, where key units were mounted in its U-shaped body and linked by cabling. The switch-on applied power to the On-Board Computer and integrated subsystems, including the Mass Memory Unit, the Power Conditioning and Distribution Unit and Remote Terminal Units.

Ramses must reach space by spring 2028 to rendezvous with the cruise-liner-sized asteroid Apophis as it passes Earth on Friday 13 April 2029, less than three and a half years from contract signing to lift-off. To save schedule time, the spacecraft is being built in two parts: the Core Module in Italy and the Propulsion Module at ArianeGroup's Orbital Propulsion Centre in Lampoldshausen, Germany. The modules are planned to be mated next spring at ESA's ESTEC Test Centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, starting pre-flight testing.

That testing will reproduce launch and in-space conditions, including a thermal vacuum test of two to three weeks and a sped-up mission simulation. The mission and its two CubeSats must be ready for launch on a Japanese H-3 rocket in spring 2028.