Win a trip to ESA to witness BepiColombo arrive at Mercury

The ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission has entered its Mercury arrival phase, after cruising towards the planet for the past eight years. Stacked together, three space explorers, the European Space Agency’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO or cartoon character Bepi), the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (Mio) and their robot friend, the Mercury Transfer Module (MTM), shared quite the ride so far. 

They had to navigate a complex journey, including nine planetary flybys – one flight past Earth, two past Venus and six past Mercury itself. As they approach Mercury to stay, things are getting even more exciting. 

Arriving at Mercury

Entering orbit around Mercury is no easy feat. Earlier this month, the mission started performing a series of critical steps that will bring the two orbiters, MPO and Mio, into their science orbits over the next few months: 

• On 3 September, MTM, which powered and steered BepiColombo for most of the journey, released the two orbiters and bade them farewell.
• On 21 November, MPO and Mio, still joined together, will be captured by Mercury’s gravity.
• On 9–10 December, MPO and Mio will part ways. Mio will have entered its science operation orbit at this stage.
• On 19 March 2027, MPO will also reach its final science orbit. 

The spacecraft separation on 9–10 December 2026 will officially mark BepiColombo’s arrival at Mercury. Coming thus far has been an incredible adventure for the two space explorers, one worth celebrating! 

Welcome to Mercury, Bepi and Mio! 

To mark this milestone, we are inviting you to welcome Bepi and Mio to Mercury by entering our competition. You stand a chance to win a trip to an event happening on 9 December in Darmstadt, Germany, at ESA’s Space Operations Centre. The event will begin at 22:00 CET and run until after midnight. You will get a chance to meet the teams behind BepiColombo and experience the tense moment of receiving the first signal from the spacecraft once they have separated. 

To enter the competition, you should craft a welcoming message that could be a drawing, song, poem or any other art form that can be submitted as a photo or video.  

Read the competition rules below and submit your entry by 25 October 2026 by taking two actions: 

• Share your creation on a social media channel of your choice using the hashtag #WelcomeToMercury and explain to your community what the BepiColombo mission means to you or what your favourite thing about the mission is.
• Enter the URL to your social media post (make sure your post is public!) in the entry form here so that we can find your entry and contact you if you are a winner 

Follow us on Bluesky, LinkedIn and X to stay up to date with the competition results. 

ENTRY FORM 

Competition rules follow below the image

Competition rules

Please read the full terms and conditions here and privacy notice here. 

The participants:

• The competition is open to residents of ESA Member, Cooperating and Associate States (EXCEPT staff of ESA, its suppliers, its contractors and members of their immediate families or households).
• You must be over 18 to enter. Family/group entries are allowed but the person posting the entry must be over 18, and the top prize is only valid for adults over 18.

 The entries: 

• Entries are open from 15 September until midnight CET on 25 October 2026.
• One entry per person.
• Entries should take the form of either a photo or video of your creation, together with a brief description of what you created.
• Only adults over 18 can be in images/videos. Anyone in the image/video must have given their consent.
• Entries should first be posted on a social media channel of your choice, with a link to the post included in the competition entry form. Make sure your post is public, so that we can see your creation.
• In order to be considered for the prize you must submit your entry via the form, confirming your agreement with the privacy notice.
• Entries will be judged by the ESA BepiColombo Social Media working group, including BepiColombo mission experts and editors specialising in science communication. The panel’s decision is final, and no correspondence shall be entered into to discuss the final winner.

 The prize:

• There will be one overall winner and up to nine runners up.
• The winner and runners up will be selected and informed in the second week of November 2026.
• The runners up will receive a small gift bag with ESA goodies. These will be shipped after the end of the competition period.
• Prizes are non-negotiable. There is no cash or other alternative prize for either the runners up or overall winner.

Further details about the competition are available in our Terms and Conditions, which all participants must read, together with the Privacy Notice. In addition to the rules outlined here, participants also agree to abide by the terms and conditions of the social media channels in which they enter. Please also check ESA’s privacy notice for social media: https://www.esa.int/Services/ESA_Privacy_Notice_ESA_social_media 

If you have any questions, please ask us via Bluesky, LinkedIn or X. 

What to expect if you win the top prize: 

• You will be invited to join an event in Darmstadt, Germany, and will be asked to confirm your attendance as soon as possible. The event will be hosted at ESA’s Space Operations Centre (ESOC) on the night of 9 December, starting at 22:00 CET and running until after midnight. You will receive a dedicated programme nearer the time.
• You will book your own travel and accommodation, and you will be refunded the cost up to €1000 after the event (not on the day), upon presentation of travel and/or accommodation booking receipts. You will be asked to provide your bank account details to receive the reimbursement.
• You will need a valid passport to enter the ESA establishment.
• The Mercury arrival activities are expected to happen on 9 December, but space activities are dynamic and may change even at the last minute. We recommend making flexible travel arrangements, as ESA cannot accept any liability for refunds. See esa.int/bepicolombo for the latest updates.