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ESA/JAXA · orbiter active

BepiColombo

BepiColombo, a joint ESA–JAXA mission, carries two orbiters to Mercury after a long cruise with nine planetary flybys.

Launch
20 October 2018
Distance from Earth today
101.3 million km0.677 AU · light: 5 min 38 s
Distance from the Sun today
48.97 million km0.327 AU

Live distance from Earth and chart →

Trajectory

Trajectory: JPL Horizons vectors (spacecraft -121) every 2 days, projected onto the ecliptic; compressed distance scale.

Mission timeline

  1. Launch on an Ariane 5 from Kourou
  2. Earth flyby
  3. First Venus flyby
  4. First of six Mercury flybys
  5. Sixth and final Mercury flyby
  6. Transfer module jettisoned; the arrival phase begins
  7. Planned entry into orbit around Mercury
  8. Planned separation of the two orbiters, MPO and Mio
  9. Planned start of science operations

Targets: Mercury, Venus

About the mission

BepiColombo is a stack of three modules: ESA's Mercury Planetary Orbiter, JAXA's magnetospheric orbiter Mio and an electric-propulsion transfer module. Reaching the innermost planet takes a lot of braking, so the stack used one Earth flyby, two Venus flybys and six Mercury flybys while its ion engines fired for long periods. A power problem in the transfer module reduced thrust and pushed arrival back by a year. The transfer module was jettisoned on 3 September 2026, and the two orbiters, still joined, are due to enter orbit around Mercury on 21 November 2026, separate in December and begin science in April 2027. In orbit, the two spacecraft will map Mercury's surface and interior and study its unusual magnetic field side by side.

Sources