Spacecraft lifts off for Mercury mission
TOKYO — European and Japanese space agencies said an Ariane 5 rocket successfully lifted a spacecraft carrying two probes into orbit Saturday for a joint mission to Mercury, the closest planet to the sun.
The European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said the unmanned BepiColombo spacecraft, named after Italian scientist Giuseppe “Bepi” Colombo, successfully separated and was sent into orbit from French Guiana as planned to begin a seven-year journey to Mercury.
The European Space Agency says the $1.5 billion mission is one of the most challenging in its history. Mercury’s extreme temperatures, the intense gravity pull of the sun and blistering solar radiation make for hellish conditions.
The BepiColombo spacecraft will have to follow an elliptical path that involves a fly-by of Earth, two of Venus and six of Mercury itself so it can slow down before arriving at its destination in December 2025.
When it arrives, BepiColombo will release two probes — Bepi and Mio — that will independently investigate the surface and magnetic field of Mercury.
Scientists hope to build on the insights gained by NASA’s Messenger probe, which ended its mission in 2015 after a four-year orbit of Mercury. The only other spacecraft to visit Mercury was NASA’s Mariner 10 that flew past the planet in the mid-1970s.