Provenance Record

Tight News piece (660 words) with focused structure: Overview / What the Agreement Covers / Why Apophis and Why Now / What JAXA Brings / What We Don't Know / Context. Inline citations on every numeric and quoted claim.

5 sources, all verified. source-0 (ESA 7 May announcement on planetary defence): confirms Aschbacher/Yamakawa Berlin signing, Embassy of Italy venue, JAXA solar arrays + infrared imager + H3 launch, Apophis 13 April 2029 / 32,000 km / one-tenth-Moon-distance / closer-than-geosynchronous-orbits, BepiColombo/EarthCARE/Hera lineage. source-1 (ESA Ramses mission page): confirms 375 m diameter, 13 April 2029, April 2028 launch, February 2029 arrival, Paolo Martino quote 'truly feel like one globally integrated team' verbatim, before-and-after measurements. source-2 (ESA earlier potential-collaboration update): confirms Holger Krag 'ESA welcomes JAXA's increasing interest in participating in the Ramses mission. International collaboration lies at the heart of planetary defence' verbatim, Hera-as-first-planetary-defence-mission language. source-3 (Phys.org via Archive.org fallback): confirms Berlin signing, Aschbacher/Yamakawa, 32,000 km, accompany-through-flyby framing — but original phys.org was bot-blocked so the fallback is the canonical record. source-4 (ESA-JAXA Tsukuba joint statement Nov 2024): confirms Ramses is one of 'four areas' for expanded cooperation, names thermal infrared imager, solar array wings, launch.

Every numeric detail (375 m, 32,000 km, 13 April 2029, April 2028 launch, February 2029 arrival), every name (Aschbacher, Yamakawa, Krag, Martino), every venue (Embassy of Italy in Berlin), every direct quote (Krag, Martino), and the mission lineage (Hera, BepiColombo, EarthCARE) trace to verified ESA primary sources. Headline, summary, and Overview lead are all anchored in source-0.

Clean APPROVE. Tightly sourced primary-source story on ESA-JAXA planetary defence cooperation with verified quotes, dates, and orbital parameters.