BepiColombo Leaves Earth for Mercury
BepiColombo launched on October 20, 2018, beginning a joint European-Japanese investigation of Mercury.
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Launch Toward the Inner Planet
BepiColombo launched on October 20, 2018, beginning a joint European-Japanese investigation of Mercury. The mission combined separate scientific orbiters with a transfer module.
Different Jobs in One Stack
ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter was designed to study the planet, while JAXA’s Mio would investigate its magnetic environment. They shared the journey but had distinct scientific purposes.
A Demanding Destination
Reaching Mercury requires managing motion near the Sun as well as extreme thermal conditions. Pointing a rocket inward is not sufficient to place an observatory in a stable planetary orbit.
The First Operational Phase
Flight controllers checked essential functions after launch. The opening phase was a critical engineering task, separate from later planetary flybys and orbital science.
A Date With a Time-Zone Boundary
The mission’s documentation sometimes gives October 19/20 because local launch-site time and European or UTC dates differed. This entry uses October 20, the mission’s standard launch date.
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