A pair of spacecraft draw closer to Mercury after nearly decade-long voyage

A pair of spacecraft, BepiColombo, left their mother ship behind and headed toward Mercury, a planet that is only slightly larger than our moon. The spacecraft separated as planned from their cruiser, but controllers had to wait two hours to receive confirmation via radio signals. The crucial operation was broadcast from the European Space Agency's control center in Germany, more than 124 million miles away. The spacecraft still had 2 million miles to go before reaching its destination.

BepiColombo is named for the Italian mathematician who took part in NASA's Mariner 10 mission to Mercury in the 1970s. The mission is named after him, and it is the first spacecraft to explore Mercury since 2001. The spacecraft has already traveled more than 6 billion miles on its roundabout route, and it needed nine planetary flybys to reduce its energy enough to be caught in Mercury's orbit. The last flyby, in January 2025, yielded stunning photos of Mercury's impact craters and volcanic plains.

The spacecraft will study the magnetic field that envelops Mercury, the planet's dense interior, and the geologic processes at the surface, including the hollows, or depressions, that scientists believe are being eaten away by minerals vaporizing from rocks. The mission is expected to cost $2 billion, and the European Space Agency will cover most of the cost. The spacecraft will begin science observations next spring, and the mission is expected to provide new insights into Mercury's mysterious and extreme environment.

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