BepiColombo, a joint endeavor between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), blasted off from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, at 01:45 GMT on October 20, 2018. It will make a seven year cruise to Mercury, the smallest and least explored planet in the inner Solar System, flying by Earth once, Venus twice and Mercury six times before entering orbit. An artist’s impression of the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo...
