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Watch the Launch

Additional Media

Décollage d'Ariane 5 et BepiColombo

Le 19 octobre, Ariane 5 décolle du Centre spatial guyanais avec à son bord BepiColombo, une mission de l'ESA qui étudiera la planète Mercure. Placée par Ariane 5 sur une orbite lui permettant d'échapp...

国際水星探査計画BepiColombo/アリアン5型ロケット打上げライブ中継

日本時間10月20日(土)アリアン5型ロケットによる国際水星探査計画BepiColombo打上げの模様を中継します。 番組放送時間: 10:00~12:00(日本時間 ) 打上げ予定日時: 日本時間 10月20日(土) 10時45分28秒 〔フランス領ギアナ現地時間 10月19日(金) 22時45分28秒〕 打上げ場所:クールー宇宙基地(フランス領ギアナ) ※打上げ...

BepiColombo liftoff

BepiColombo lifted off from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on an Ariane 5 rocket at 01:45 GMT on 20 October 2018 Learn more about #BepiColombo: http://bit.ly/ESAsBepiColombo ★ Subscrib...

Flight VA245 | Ariane 5 Best of Liftoff | Arianespace

Arianespace has successfully launched the BepiColombo spacecraft on its mission to explore Mercury, the smallest and least known terrestrial planet in the Solar System. This launch, the seventh of th...

BepiColombo launch live by European Space Agency

Watch European Space Agency's BepiColombo launch live on Livestream.com. Watch live as the ESA-JAXA BepiColombo mission to Mercury is launched on an Ariane 5 from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. BepiColombo is the first European mission to Mercury, the smallest and least explored plan...

BepiColombo

Overview

Destination: Heliocentric N/A
Mission: Planetary Science

Heliocentric N/A Ariane Launch Area 3 Guiana Space Centre, French Guiana #BepiColombo

BepiColombo is a joint mission of the ESA and the JAXA to the planet Mercury. The mission comprises two satellites to be launched together: the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO). The mission will perform a comprehensive study of Mercury, including its magnetic field, magnetosphere, interior structure and surface.

Ariane 5 ECA

Family:
Configuration: ECA

Ariane 5 is a heavy-lift launch vehicle, part of the Ariane rocket family.

Specifications
  • Max Stage
    2
  • Length
    57.7 m
  • Diameter
    5.4 m
  • Fairing Diameter
    5.4 m
  • Launch Mass
    780.0 T
  • Thrust
    11400.0 kN
Family
  • Name
    Ariane 5 ECA
  • Family
  • Variant
    ECA
  • Alias
  • Full Name
    Ariane 5 ECA
Payload Capacity
  • Launch Cost
  • Low Earth Orbit
  • Geostationary Transfer Orbit
    10500.0 kg
  • Direct Geostationary
  • Sun-Synchronous Capacity

ArianeGroup

ArianeGroup

(AG)

CEO: Christophe Bruneau Founded: 2015 Successes: 0 Failures: 0 Pending: 0

Agency Type:

ArianeGroup (formerly Airbus Safran Launchers) is an aerospace company based in France. A joint venture between Airbus and Safran, the company was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Issy-les-Moulineaux. It consists of three core arms: aerospace, defence and security.

INFO WIKI
ESA

MTM's selfie footage of BepiColombo's eight-year journey

Witness how over the last eight years, the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission has been travelling through the inner Solar System and aligning itself with Mercury's orbit. So far, it has travelled 9.9 billion km and completed nine 'planetary flyb…

ESA

BepiColombo begins Mercury arrival with MTM separation success

On 3 September 2026 at 15:49 CEST, the European Space Agency's BepiColombo Mission Control Team at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) received the signal they had been waiting for – BepiColombo’s Mercury Transfer Module (MTM) succ…

ESA

BepiColombo’s Mercury arrival begins - full replay

Watch the replay of the livestream originally broadcast on 3 September as ESA/JAXA's BepiColombo mission took the first critical step towards arriving at Mercury.

ESA

Latest updates: BepiColombo's arrival at Mercury

After eight years of travelling through the inner Solar System, BepiColombo is arriving at Mercury. This page will show the latest updates throughout the mission's arrival.

ESA

Media briefing: BepiColombo's next milestone towards Mercury

Rewatch the European Space Agency's 31 August 2026 online press briefing on the latest developments of the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission, Europe's and Japan's first mission to Mercury.

Guiana Space Centre, French Guiana

Ariane Launch Area 3


Long March 2D
Success
9 hours, 8 minutes ago
PIESAT-2 13-16
Launch Complex 9 - Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

4 X-band synthetic-aperture radar Earth observation satellites for the Chinese Earth observation satellite company PIESAT.


Electron
Success
16 hours, 36 minutes ago
Owl By The Dozen (StriX Launch 12)
Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1B - Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand

Synthetic aperture radar satellite for Japanese Earth imaging company Synspective.


Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat-M
Success
2 days, 3 hours ago
Glonass-K1 No. 20 (?)
43/3 (43L) - Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russian Federation

Note: Satellite serial number and Cosmos designation not confirmed. Glonass-K are the third generation of satellite design for GLONASS satellite n…


Kuaizhou 11
Success
2 days, 17 hours ago
SpaceTY-51 & 52
Launch Area 95A - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

2 Earth observation radar satellites built by the Chinese satellite manufacturer SpaceTY.


Falcon 9
Success
2 days, 18 hours ago
USSF-259
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

USSF-259 is a classified mission for the United States Space Force. It is possibly a batch of classified LEO satellites based on SpaceX’s Starshield …


Long March 12
Success
2 days, 19 hours ago
SatNet LEO Group 25
Commercial LC-2 - Wenchang Space Launch Site, People's Republic of China

A batch of 9 Low Earth Orbit communication satellites for the Chinese state owned SatNet constellation operated by the China Satellite Network Group.…


Soyuz 2.1b
Success
3 days, 6 hours ago
Progress MS-35 (96P)
31/6 - Baikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan

Progress resupply mission to the International Space Station.


Gravity-1
Success
3 days, 21 hours ago
SpaceSail Polar Group #16
Yellow Sea (launch location 5) - Haiyang Oriental Spaceport

9 Low Earth Orbit communication satellites with Ku, Q and V band payloads for the G60 constellation operated by Shanghai Spacesail Technologies with …


Zhuque-2E Block 2
Success
4 days, 13 hours ago
SpaceSail Polar Group #15
Launch Area 96A - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

10 Low Earth Orbit communication satellites with Ku, Q and V band payloads for the G60 constellation operated by Shanghai Spacesail Technologies with…


Vega-C
Success
4 days, 18 hours ago
Sentinel-3C & FLEX
Ariane Launch Area 1 (ELV) - Guiana Space Centre, French Guiana

Sentinel-3C is the third satellite in the Sentinel-3 constellation, which provides high-accuracy optical, radar and altimetry data for marine and lan…