General · 5 September 2026

Spacecraft begin arrival at Mercury after eight-year journey

Photo by Am on Unsplash

The BepiColombo mission, undertaken collaboratively by the European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, represents the third expedition dispatched to investigate Mercury. Following an eight-year transit, the module providing power for the mission detached on 3 September, separating from two data-gathering spacecraft. These spacecraft, ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter and JAXA’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter, will start collecting scientific data in April 2027.

By BriefTea Editorial · 5 September 2026 at 16:41

Reported by smithsonianmag.com · How we write briefs

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Why is Mercury so hard to reach? What's the point of exploring Mercury? What came before BepiColombo?

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