Mercury flyby tonight: Europe's BepiColombo spacecraft to attempt its 1st swing past the planet

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Mercury flyby tonight: Europe's BepiColombo spacecraft to attempt its 1st swing past the planet

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Post by smp »


From Ars Technica:
"A spacecraft bound for the planet Mercury will take a first look at the target tonight, when it makes its first-ever flyby of the small rocky world during an incredibly close encounter tonight.

The mission, called BepiColombo, is a joint project of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). It is only the second mission in history sent to orbit Mercury, the smallest and innermost planet of the solar system."

https://www.space.com/mercury-bepicolom ... lyby-ready

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Re: Mercury flyby tonight: Europe's BepiColombo spacecraft to attempt its 1st swing past the planet

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Post by smp »


From CNN:
"Mercury mission flies by closest planet to the sun for the first time"

https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/01/world/be ... index.html

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Re: Mercury flyby tonight: Europe's BepiColombo spacecraft to attempt its 1st swing past the planet

#3

Post by Makuser »


Hi Stephen. A very exciting mission and the first since the Messenger voyage of 2015. The closeup photos should be received and processed by sometime today. Thanks for finding and posting the links to this event Steven and I hope all goes well on this mission.
Marshall
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