Astrium
24 hours from now, an Ariane 5 rocket carrying the BepiColombo spacecraft is set to launch towards planet Mercury from Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana. The exact time of lift-off is 6:45 PM, Pacific Daylight Time (9:45 PM, Eastern Daylight Time) on October 19. Once it is safely in space, BepiColombo will take a little over seven years to reach Mercury, where it will arrive in December of 2025. After entering orbit, BepiColombo will separate into two satellites—the European Space Agency's Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency's MIO spacecraft, respectively—that will study the 'First Rock from the Sun' (my own term) for up to three years. This duration of flight also includes an extended mission.
Godspeed, Bepi! The joint European and Japanese mission continues where NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft left off after completing its study of Mercury on April 30, 2015. Can't wait for MPO and MIO to expand our scientific knowledge of the First Rock seven years from now. Happy Thursday!
ESA - S. Corvaja
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