Spacecraft Bound for Mercury Begins ‘Tricky’ Arrival

After an eight-year journey, a spacecraft carrying European and Japanese probes began the months-long, high-risk approach to Mercury on Thursday to study the Sun-scorched planet. The BepiColombo mission set off from Earth in 2018 on a winding path to study the smallest and least understood planet in our Solar System with the aim of releasing the two probes into its orbit. On Thursday it began its arrival phase, described by the European Space Agency (ESA) as its "most operationally challenging planetary arrival sequences ever attempted".