BepiColombo’s Earth flyby

The ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission completed its Earth flyby on 10 April 2020. The spacecraft came less than 12700 km from Earth’s surface at 04:25 UTC, steering its trajectory towards the final destination, Mercury. The spacecraft will perform two flybys at Venus (in October 2020 and August 2021) and six at Mercury, starting from October 2021, before orbit insertion in December 2025. Credits: European Space Agency (ESA)/Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) ESA/BepiColombo/MTM, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO