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BepiColombo spacecraft begin risky final approach to Mercury orbit
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— Sep 3, 2026
The European Space Agency and Japan’s JAXA have begun the arrival phase of the BepiColombo mission to Mercury, with the two orbiters separating in preparation to enter Mercury’s orbit in November and split in December to map the planet. The highly automated, high-risk sequence—driven by Mercury’s proximity to the Sun and involving multiple flybys—underscores the mission’s complexity, with scientific observations slated to begin in the coming years.
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Jared Kim
Seven years of flybys and gravity assists just to fight the Sun's pull enough to slip into orbit - wild that Mercury is harder to reach than Pluto in some ways.
