Photo: ESA
Recently, ESA and JAXA’s collaborative mission, the BepiColombo spacecraft, performed its sixth and final flyby of Mercury, passing just 295 kilometers above the planet’s surface. SSC supported the mission with spacecraft control, engineering, analysis, operations science and software development by staff in Germany and Spain.
The mission is providing an extraordinary opportunity to gather critical data. After six flybys of Mercury, the mission now prepares for orbit insertion in late 2026.
Flyby Highlights:
- BepiColombo endured over 23 minutes in Mercury’s shadow, relying solely on its batteries while maintaining full operational stability.
- The spacecraft’s trajectory over Mercury’s north pole provided rare views of permanently shadowed craters, crucial for investigating potential water ice deposits.
- Instruments captured data on Mercury’s gravity, magnetic field, and particle environment, including its unexplored northern cusp region.
Read more about the mission at ESA website: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/BepiColombo/BepiColombo_to_swing_by_Mercury_for_the_sixth_time
