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Credit: CC0 Public Domain
The launch of BepiColombo is scheduled for October 20 at 01:45 GMT (3:45 CEST) on an Ariane 5 from the European spaceport of Kourou.
The final assembly of the two orbiters and the transfer module took place, ready for the integration of the probe into its Ariane 5 launcher.
BepiColombo is the first European mission on Mercury, the smallest planet in the internal solar system and the least explored. It is a joint initiative of ESA and JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, which consists of two scientific orbiters: the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (DFO). ) and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO) of ESA. The mission will study all aspects of mercury, the structure and dynamics of its magnetosphere, its interaction with the solar wind, its internal structure with its large iron core and the origin of the planet's magnetic field.
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