Mercury arrival for ESA/JAXA’s twin orbiters with live Space.com stream

Two spacecraft from ESA and JAXA—BepiColombo’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter and Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter—are about to begin the Mercury-arrival phase, separating from their transfer module around 8:00 a.m. EDT on Sept. 3. Space.com will carry the ESA webcast starting at 7:45 a.m. EDT to cover the separation and initial comms as the two orbiters head toward Mercury, with MPO/ Mio to be linked in later, and the science phase kicking off in 2027: MPO will map Mercury’s surface while Mio studies Mercury’s magnetosphere, after the two craft reach their planned orbits in 2027–2028. The mission launched in October 2018 and will yield detailed insights into Mercury’s interior, composition, and magnetic field.