Browsing: Mission

Eight years after it left Earth, BepiColombo is now tantalisingly close to entering orbit around Mercury, a hot and dense ball of metals and silicates with its own magnetic field, considered one of the most difficult planets to observe because the gravitational pull and wild radiation from the Sun are so intense.

The mission began at 12:27 GMT. Twenty minutes later, Sophie Adenot of the European Space Agency (ESA) was once again in the vacuum of space around the ISS, accompanied by her teammate, NASA astronaut Anil Menon, mounted on the base of the Canadarm2 robotic arm.