ESA · Ruimte

BepiColombo Arrives at Mercury After Eight-Year Journey

The BepiColombo mission, a joint effort by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), has begun its arrival phase at Mercury after an eight-year journey. This mission will be the first to have two spacecraft, ESA's Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and JAXA's Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (Mio), orbiting the planet simultaneously.

The 'arrival phase' commenced on September 3, 2026, with the separation of the Mercury Transfer Module (MTM) from the spacecraft stack. The composite spacecraft is scheduled to enter orbit around Mercury on November 21, 2026, followed by the separation of MPO and Mio on December 9-10, 2026. The science phase of the mission is slated to begin in April 2027.

On September 3, 2026, at 14:52 BST / 15:52 CEST, signal acquisition via Estrack deep space antennas confirmed the successful separation of BepiColombo's MTM. Telemetry indicated nominal systems, with MPO's solar panels charging the spacecraft's batteries. This critical separation, executed over 200 million kilometers from Earth, required precise planning and navigation.

Earlier on September 3, 2026, at 13:41 BST / 14:41 CEST, a preliminary Doppler signal indicated the MTM's separation from the BepiColombo spacecraft stack. This signal variation, caused by changes in the spacecraft's velocity, is consistent with the planned separation sequence. Full confirmation was awaited from the MPO spacecraft.

The MTM separation was expected around 13:00 BST / 14:00 CEST, marking a key step towards orbiting Mercury. ESA's livestream of the event began at 12:45 BST / 13:45 CEST.

At 11:03 BST / 12:03 CEST, the Mission Control Team received the 'GO for separation' command, confirming the spacecraft was checked, configured, and ready for the MTM separation.

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