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At 06:59 Central European time on January 8, the BepiColombo spacecraft successfully completed its sixth flyby of Mercury, the innermost planet in space. This was a “gravity manipulation,” a move that used Mercury’s gravity to change the trajectory of the BepiColombo vehicle, which will allow it to reach Earth’s orbit by the end of 2026.
BepiColombo is a joint project of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) that will study Mercury. The vehicle, made up of two probes – ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter and JAXA’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter – was launched in late 2018 and previously orbited the sun.
Once back at Mercury, the vehicle will separate, and the two probes will head to their dedicated polar orbits. BepiColombo’s scientific mission is planned for the beginning of 2027, when the research will look for information about how the Earth was formed and whether some of its remains contain water in the form of ice.
Until then, we’ll have to make do with these three photos taken of the car during its most recent outing.
