ESA Web TV talks to BepiColombo project manager Ulrich Reininghaus inside the cleanroom at Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, where the mission is undergoing final preparations for its launch to Mercury.
BepiColombo is a joint mission between ESA and JAXA. It consists of two science orbiters – ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter and JAXA’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter – and the Mercury Transfer Module, which will use solar electric propulsion to carry the two orbiters to Mercury, along with gravity assist flybys at Earth, Venus and Mercury itself. It is Europe’s first mission to Mercury, the smallest and least explored terrestrial planet in the inner Solar System.