Japanese Space Agency names arrival date for BepiColombo Mercury mission
Due on November 21, eleven months late - but on time to do science!
Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has offered a definitive date for the BepiColombo mission’s arrival at Mercury.
BepiColombo is a joint effort between JAXA and the European Space Agency. The mission involves three craft: A vehicle called the Mercury Transfer Module (MTM), which carries the ESA's Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and JAXA's Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO).
The MTM’s primary role is getting the two orbiters to Mercury, but mission boffins have used its cameras to snap images of Earth, Venus and Mercury in the seven-and-a-half years since its October 2018 launch.
The mission plan called for the MTM to swing around the Earth once and Venus twice, plus six loops around Mercury. A thruster glitch saw mission planners revisethat itinerary and meant the probe would arrive in orbit at Mercury in November 2026 – eleven...
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