First Venus flyby of BepiColombo on the way to Mercury
First Venus flyby of BepiColombo on the way to Mercury
At 05:58 CEST on 15 October 2020, almost two years after its launch, the BepiColombo spacecraft, consisting of one European Space Agency (ESA) and one Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) orbiter, will make the first of two flybys of Venus. The aim of the manoeuvre, at a distance of 10,720 kilometres from the surface of the planet, is to decelerate BepiColombo slightly and reach an orbit gradually approaching the orbit of the planet Mercury, the final destination of the mission. The second flyby of Venus will take place on 11 August 2021. During the flyby, scientific experiments will be carried out using some of the instruments on board both probes, including the MERTIS infrared spectrometer.
