{"id":803600,"date":"2026-09-05T18:38:37","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T23:38:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=803600"},"modified":"2026-09-05T18:38:37","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T23:38:37","slug":"esa-bepicolombos-mercury-arrival-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=803600","title":{"rendered":"ESA &#8211; BepiColombo\u2019s Mercury arrival begins"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"modal__tab-content--details\">\n<div class=\"modal__tab-description\">\n<p>Watch the replay of the livestream originally broadcast on 3 September as ESA\/JAXA&#8217;s BepiColombo mission took the first critical step towards arriving at Mercury.<\/p>\n<p>After travelling through the inner Solar System together for eight years, BepiColombo&#8217;s Mercury Transfer Module (MTM) will separate from the rest of the stacked spacecraft on 3 September 2026. This marks the beginning of one of the most complex planetary arrival sequences ever attempted by ESA.<\/p>\n<p>Broadcast live from ESA&#8217;s European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, the programme includes live views from the iconic Main Control Room, expert analysis, behind-the-scenes insights, and the first signal from the spacecraft following separation.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Livestream schedule (CEST):\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n13:45 \u2013 Livestream begins\u00a0<br \/>14:00 \u2013 MTM separation\u00a0<br \/>14:30 \u2013 Livestream pause\u00a0<br \/>15:30 \u2013 Livestream resumes\u00a0<br \/>15:53 \u2013 Earliest possible acquisition of signal and spacecraft status check\u00a0<br \/>16:00-16:45 \u2013 End of livestream\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t<label style=\"display: block; font-size: 0.9em; color: #8197A6; margin: 3rem 0 -1rem 0;\">Embed code<\/label><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<textarea rows=\"4\" cols=\"60\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"BepiColombo\u2019s Mercury arrival begins (Official ESA broadcast)\" width=\"1110\" height=\"624\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/oC7lQngNG3o?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/textarea><\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.esa.int\/ESA_Multimedia\/Videos\/2026\/09\/BepiColombo_s_Mercury_arrival_begins_-_full_replay?rand=771654\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Watch the replay of the livestream originally broadcast on 3 September as ESA\/JAXA&#8217;s BepiColombo mission took the first critical step towards arriving at Mercury. After travelling through the inner Solar&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":803601,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-803600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ESA"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=803600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/803601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=803600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=803600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=803600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}