![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/2018-10-19-19_49_24-index.php-6000%C3%974000.jpg\")
<\/p>\nArianespace has conducted the opening part of the BepiColombo mission with the launch of the spacecraft on a flight to study Mercury. The launch was conducted by an Ariane 5 that lifted off at 01:45 UTC on Saturday from the European Spaceport at Kourou, French Guiana.
\nBepiColombo is a joint mission of the European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. It was named in honor of Italian mathematician and engineer Giuseppe \u201cBepi\u201d Colombo.<\/p>\n
The mission has been delayed by about five years, although that is not uncommon for major flagship missions.<\/p>\n
At one point it was set to launch within weeks of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) \u2013 also on an Ariane 5 \u2013 before that mission also suffered numerous delays.<\/p>\n
BepiColombo consists of two orbiters: Japan\u2019s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO) and ESA\u2019s Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO), both of which will be carried together by the Mercury Transport Module (MTM).<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
All the elements during integration \u2013 via Jacques van Oene of Spacepatches.nl provided to NSF<\/p>\n
While MPO will go into an approximately 400 x 1500 km mapping orbit around Mercury, MMO will enter a highly elliptical orbit to study the planet\u2019s enigmatically strong magnetic field.<\/p>\n
A combination of spacecraft will be launched together, with the Mercury Composite Spacecraft (MCS) consisting of two orbiters: MMO, MPO; as well as two additional elements: MTM, the Magnetospheric Orbiter Sunshield and Interface Structure (MOSIF).<\/p>\n
The mission will undertake a seven year cruise to Mercury, using a combination of solar electric propulsion and nine gravity assist flybys at Earth, Venus and Mercury.<\/p>\n
The opening element of that journey involved a ride on the Ariane 5 rocket.<\/p>\n
Astronomy (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n This interplanetary mission comes hot on the heels of Ariane 5\u2019s 100th flight, placing two telecommunications satellites into orbit in the process \u2013 which are the bread and butter missions for this launch vehicle.<\/p>\n Designated VA245 in Arianespace\u2019s launcher family numbering system, this was the 23rd major scientific mission performed by the company to date.<\/p>\n Launch profile \u2013 via ESA<\/p>\n The launch window for BepiColombo opened on 5 October and would have closed on 29 November 2018 \u2013 a window designed to ensure the trajectory and multiple planetary flybys and gravity assists needed to eventually insert BepiColombo into the orbit of Mercury can be achieved via planetary alignments of Earth, Venus, and Mercury.<\/p>\n Based on an October 2018 launch, BepiColombo will perform the following flyby \/ planetary encounter sequence leading to orbit insertion at Mercury on 5 December 2025:<\/p>\n Ariane 5 lofted estimated payload mass of 4,241 kg from ELA-3, with spacecraft separation occurring 27 minutes into the flight.<\/p>\n The carrier spacecraft will use a combination of electric propulsion \u2013 which has undergone steering tests on the ground \u2013 along with multiple gravity-assists to complete the 7.2 year journey to the Solar System\u2019s mysterious innermost planet.<\/p>\n The 22 cm-diameter T6 thruster was designed for ESA by QinetiQ in the UK, whose expertise in electric propulsion stretches back to the 1960s. The spacecraft built was led by Airbus, but involves numerous companies and countries.<\/p>\n After arriving at Mercury, the modules will separate and from their respective orbits the science orbiters will make complementary measurements of Mercury\u2019s interior, surface, exosphere and magnetosphere, following up on many of the open questions raised by NASA\u2019s Messenger mission.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/2018-10-19-20_18_48-index.php-8000%C3%974500.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n\n
\n Date<\/b><\/td>\n Milestone<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 6 April 2020<\/td>\n First (and only) Earth flyby<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 12 October 2020<\/td>\n First Venus flyby<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 11 August 2021<\/td>\n Second (and final) Venus flyby<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 2 October 2021<\/td>\n First Mercury flyby<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 23 June 2022<\/td>\n Second Mercury flyby<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 20 June 2023<\/td>\n Third Mercury flyby<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 5 September 2024<\/td>\n Fourth Mercury flyby<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 2 December 2024<\/td>\n Fifth Mercury flyby<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 9 January 2025<\/td>\n Sixth Mercury flyby<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 5 December 2025<\/td>\n Mercury orbit insertion<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n