MPO Mercury Planetary Orbiter spacecraft
ESA's Mercury Planetary Orbiter is BepiColombo's three-axis-stabilized spacecraft for studying Mercury's terrain, composition and interior. After the transfer module separated on 3 September 2026, MPO took responsibility for the final approach and for powering the still-attached Mio orbiter. Mercury orbit insertion is planned for 21 November 2026, followed by separation of the science orbiters in December and the start of science operations in April 2027.
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Identity
- Aliases
- MPOMercury Planetary OrbiterBepiColombo MPO
- Family Name
- MPO
- Full Name
- MPO Mercury Planetary Orbiter spacecraft
- Roles
- orbiterinterplanetary_proberesearch
- Status
- active
- Type
- spacecraft
Details
- Description
- ESA's Mercury Planetary Orbiter is BepiColombo's three-axis-stabilized spacecraft for studying Mercury's terrain, composition and interior. After the transfer module separated on 3 September 2026, MPO took responsibility for the final approach and for powering the still-attached Mio orbiter. Mercury orbit insertion is planned for 21 November 2026, followed by separation of the science orbiters in December and the start of science operations in April 2027.
- First Flight Year
- 2,018
Links
Assets & Meta
- Creation Time
- August 14, 2026 at 00:41:02 UTC
- Updated Time
- October 29, 2026 at 13:11:28 UTC