On June 19, the Mercury-bound BepiColombo mission made its third flyby of the solar system’s darkest world. This week, as the European Space Agency’s BepiColombo passed by Mercury for the third time, the daring space mission got a glimpse of its final destination. After the flight, the team confirms that the spacecraft is in good condition and that all instruments are working as planned.

“Everything with the flight went very smoothly and images from the surveillance cameras taken during the close approach phase of the flight were transmitted to the ground,” Ignacio Clerigo (ESA) said in a recent press release. “Although Mercury’s next flyby won’t be until September 2024, there are still issues to be resolved by then.”

BepiColombo passed just 236 kilometers (147 miles) from Mercury on June 19 at 3:34 p.m. EDT / 19:34 UT. However, the spacecraft was in the planet’s shadow during maximum approach, so the images shown here were taken before or after the flight. (The second flight on June 23, 2022 was even closer, just 200 kilometers from the surface.)

Ahead of this week’s flight, the European Space Agency (ESA) released an early teaser image on June 19. The image was taken by Mission Camera 1, which was active 41 to 5 hours before closest approach.

BepiColombo is a joint ESA, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and ESA mission launched with an Ariane 5 rocket from ESA’s Guiana Space Center on October 20, 2018. Entering the interior of the solar system is actually quite difficult because of the Sun’s Deep Gravitational Pit. BepiColombo passed near Earth on April 10, 2020, and will pass near Venus in late 2020 and August 2021. It is currently completing six flights of Mercury, changing its path as it prepares to enter orbit and begin science operations.

This flight was notable as the first flight with a laser altimeter activated and a radio science experiment. Although the primary purpose of the flight was to lose momentum in preparation for the spacecraft’s possible arrival into Mercury’s orbit, the team took advantage of this opportunity to test and calibrate the instruments on board.

The mission’s scientific goals include studying the interior of the planet, including its internal structure, local magnetosphere, and exosphere.

This mission will also be the first to test a second predicted change in Mercury’s orbit predicted by Einstein’s general theory of relativity. The general theory of relativity explained the anomalous motion of Mercury in 1915. In 2018, physicist Clifford Will used this theory to predict a second “interesting” feature of Mercury’s orbit that is too subtle yet to be seen. The spring-loaded accelerometer will work in conjunction with a radio science experiment to find the effect.

The mission will make three more passes by Mercury before entering orbit on December 5, 2025; science operations will begin in February 2026. Source