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BepiColombo - Exploring Mercury

Europe's first mission to Mercury

Welcome to ESA's website for the BepiColombo scientific community and the BepiColombo Science Ground Segment. The target audience for this site is scientists and engineers involved in the BepiColombo mission. ESA pages for the general public interested in the BepiColombo mission can be found here .

Next milestone: Flyby No 6 on 8 January 2025 at 6:59 CET closest Approach (~295km from the surface)

Last year was a very special and at the end also a very successful year for BepiColombo. We managed to perform the last two flybys as planned and redefine our mission without compromising science goals and performance. The only impact left is a one-year delay of the start of our in-orbit science phase. However, we have still a long and challenging way in front of us and the next step is the final flyby on 8 January 2025 before we stay in orbit after orbit insertion in November 2026. This has been again fantastically illustrated by our designer and friend Alex Lutkus. Many thanks for all the nice designs to announce our flybys.

An overview paper about the mission and its science goals was published in 2021: Benkhoff, J., Murakami, G., Baumjohann, W., et al. BepiColombo - Mission Overview and Science Goals. Space Sci Rev 217, 90 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-021-00861-4

BepiColombo Mercury Flyby#6

6 January 2025

Mercury flyby 6 is upcoming. Closest Approach will be reached on 8 January 2025. The flyby distance will be about 295km from the surface.

BepiColombo Mercury Flyby#5

1 December 2024

Mercury flyby 5 has been successfully completed. Closest Approach was reached on 1 December 2024. The flyby distance was about 37626km from the surface. The BepiColombo team has also updated the trajectory of the spacecraft.

Next SWT in Rome

23 October 2024 Registration is open for our up-coming Science Working Team Meeting. The meeting will be hosted by Stefano Orsini and our MORE colleagues in Rome, Italy. The meeting will be held from 10-13 June 2025 @Università La Sapienza by Piazza San Pietro in Vincoli. read more

BepiColombo Mercury Flyby#4

2 September 2024 Mercury flyby 4 is coming up. Closest Approach will be on 4 September. The estimated flyby distance is about 165km from the surface. The BepiColombo team has also updated the trajectory of the spacecraft. read more

MERCURY2024

24 April 2024 we kindly remind you the due dates of the upcoming Mercury 2024 meeting on 4-7 June 2024 in Kyoto, Japan. The abstract submission deadline: 30 April 2024, 23:59JST/16:59CEST/10:59EDT The in-person registration deadline: 16 May 2024, 23:59JST/16:59CEST/10:59EDT Please submit and register ASAP by the due dates above. read more

Flyby#3 completed successfully

20 June 2023 Yes we did it again! On June 19 at around 19:34 BepiColombo successfully performed its third flyby. We got some nice results from our instruments and the monitoring cameras on MTM. Have a look and read more! Thanks to our communications and Mcam expert team for preparing this nice web story. read more

BepiColombo 3rd Flyby

18 June 2023

Mercury flyby 3 is coming up. Closest Approach will be on 19 June at 19:34:25 UTC. The estimated flyby distance is about 236 km from the surface.

SWT#21 Japan

6 October 2022 Registration is open for our up-coming Science Working Team Meeting. The meeting will be hosted by our Japanese colleagues in Japan. The meeting will be held from 21-24 November @Integrated Research Center, Kobe University. Note: VISA or Covid restrictions may apply. read more

ESA is looking for new Research Fellows in Space Science in 2023

1 September 2022 ESA Fellowships provide a unique opportunity to work with scientists and engineers at the forefront of space science, and experience first-hand how ESA works. Are you an early career PhD scientist from an ESA Member State working in heliophysics, planetary science, astrophysics or fundamental physics? Join us! read more

BepiColombo at EPSC

25 August 2022 The Europlanet Science Congress 2022 will take place at the Palacio de Congresos de Granada, Spain, 18–23 September 2022. The meeting will cover the entire scope of planetary science however on Monday 19 September EPSC hosts a Mercury session, where many talks are related to the goals and first results of the BepiColombo mission. read more

BEPICOLOMBO'S SECOND MERCURY FLYBY - A GREAT SUCCESS

24 June 2022 The closest approach took place at 09:44 UTC (11:44 CEST) on 23 June 2022, about 200 km above the planet’s surface. Instrument teams on both spacecraft shared first insights from this flyby at our SWT meeting in July. It was interesting to compare the data with what instruments measured on our first flyby. read more

News - BepiColombo’s close Venus encounter

10 May 2022 A stunning sequence of 89 images taken by the monitoring cameras on board the European-Japanese BepiColombo mission to Mercury, as the spacecraft made a close approach of Venus on 10 August 2021. read more

Spacecraft 3D Model

Do you want to explore our spacecraft in more detail? If yes click 3D-MODEL

Where is BepiColombo & Attitude Viewer

Interactive 3D tools showing the spacecraft attitude and where the BepiColombo spacecraft is on any given day from launch in October 2018 to just beyond the end of its cruise phase end of 2025. To play with the tools click here.

Tweets by BepiColombo

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