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It's been over 14 years since a spaceship was launched to Mercury, so do not miss your chance to watch a rocket do just that.
BepiColombo, a Euro-Japanese project that will be the third mission to study the deepest planet in the solar system, is launched tonight (October 19) in Kourou, French Guiana, aboard a rocket Ariane 5 ECA. The takeoff is scheduled for 21:45. EDT (0h45 GMT, October 20th) and you can watch the live launch on Space.com, courtesy of the European Space Agency (ESA).
The broadcast will start at 9:15 pm EDT (0:15 GMT, October 20), with half an hour of comments before launch. The BepiColombo payload will be deployed approximately 26 minutes in flight and will signal control of the mission approximately 15 minutes later. The broadcast is scheduled to end at 22:30. EDT (0230 GMT, 20 October).
The engineers closed the fairing on BepiColombo in anticipation of the launch of the mission on October 19 (October 20, GMT).
Credit: Manuel Pedoussaut / ESA
The launch was approved on Wednesday, October 17th, after a final review of the spacecraft and rocket, which was launched yesterday in preparation for its launch.
If the launch can not take place at the scheduled time, the takeoff will be delayed by 24 hours. When ESA and the Japanese space agency JAXA announced their launch plans for this fall, they said the launch window for this mission would last until November 29th.
Artist illustration depicting the two spaceships BepiColombo at Mercury. The mission will send orbits from Europe and Japan to the most inland planet.
Credit: Spacecraft: ESA / ATG medialab; Mercury: NASA / JPL
Once BepiColombo is launched, he will begin the seven-year journey to Mercury. The journey takes so long because the spacecraft has to fight against the gravitational pull of the sun. In December 2025, two twin satellites will separate and independently put into orbit Mercury.
The mission, whose report states that Spaceflight Now costed nearly $ 2 billion, will last one year, with a possible extension of one year. Meanwhile, the two spacecraft will study various questions about Mercury. Activities will include the measurement of the inner structure of the planet, the study of the characteristics of the surface and the observation of the interaction of the planet's magnetic field with the flow of charged particles. constantly flowing from the sun.
Email Meghan Bartels at [email protected] or follow her. @meghanbartels. follow us @Spacedotcom and Facebook. Original article on Space.com.
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