BepiColombo Is Mercury-Bound! Separation Should Have Happened — ESA Awaiting Confirmation

A major milestone for BepiColombo’s journey to Mercury may have just occurred. The mission’s two science orbiters — ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and JAXA’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (Mio) — were scheduled to separate from the Mercury Transfer Module (MTM) on Thursday, Sept. 3, at around 8:00 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT). At the time of this report, ESA is still awaiting confirmation of the separation. Telemetry and spacecraft data will be analyzed to verify that the milestone was successfully completed. 🚀 Follow Space.com Source: