30 Mar 2015 - BepiColombo Launch Moved to 2017

[NASA]

http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/images/miss-bepicolombo-mp.jpg (http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/display.cfm?News_ID=48982)30 Mar 2015 - BepiColombo Launch Moved to 2017
The launch of BepiColombo, an ESA mission to explore the planet Mercury in collaboration with the Japanese space agency, JAXA, is now planned to take place during a one month long window starting on 27 January 2017.


More... (http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/display.cfm?News_ID=48982)

[Star Tsar]

T-Minus Tree Days...



European Space Agency

BepiColombo's Mission To Mercury

Published 9th October 2018

BepiColombo is scheduled for launch at 01:45 GMT (03:45 CEST) on 20 October on an Ariane 5 from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou.

Final assembly of the two orbiters and transfer module has taken place, ready for the spacecraft to be integrated into its Ariane 5 launcher.

BepiColombo is Europe’s first mission to Mercury, the smallest and least explored planet in the inner Solar System. It is a joint endeavour between ESA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA, and consists of two scientific orbiters: ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and JAXA’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO). The mission will study all aspects of Mercury, from the structure and dynamics of its magnetosphere and how it interacts with the solar wind, to its internal structure with its large iron core, and the origin of the planet’s magnetic field.

Read all about it here: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/BepiColombo

xHHfUnmkXi4

Planet Mercury

Published 16th October 2018

Mercury, the least explored planet of the inner Solar System, is the target of BepiColombo, the ESA/JAXA mission that is going to reveal the secrets of the smallest of the rocky planets.

PGIZC5hEpUQ

This video footage from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou showing the three BepiColombo spacecraft modules being 'stacked' in launch configuration.

BepiColombo is a joint endeavour between ESA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA. The mission comprises two science orbiters: ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter and JAXA’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter. The ESA-built Mercury Transfer Module will carry the orbiters to Mercury using a combination of solar electric propulsion and gravity assist flybys. It is the first European mission to Mercury, the smallest and least explored planet in the inner Solar System, and the first to send two spacecraft to make complementary measurements of the planet and its dynamic environment at the same time.

DK1QkP994O4