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Emily Lakdawalla • Oct 12, 2018
How to follow BepiColombo's launch
It’s been a long stretch of few launches to destinations other than the Moon, Sun, Mars, and asteroids, so I’m thrilled to be anticipating the beginning of a new mission to Mercury. And what an ambitious mission! BepiColombo will deliver two science spacecraft to the innermost planet, propelled there by a third ion-powered ship.
There’s a fabulous mission preview in the most recent issue of The Planetary Report, and I won’t repeat those contents here. This post is just about how to follow the launch. Here’s a timeline, converted to various time zones, copied from the mission press kit and the Arianespace launch press kit (PDF). Jason Davis will be tweeting, and it's also worth following various mission Twitter feeds: @BepiColombo, @ESAOperations, @ESAScience, @JAXA_en, @JAXA_MMO, @ESA_Bepi, and @ESA_MTM. Best wishes to ESA and JAXA for a totally nominal launch!
By the way, in case you don't notice it in the table below: There are monitoring cameras on the Mercury Transfer Module that should get us photos of the deployed solar arrays and antennas at 12 and 36 hours after launch, respectively. Stay tuned for those!
| Event | Time (PDT) | Time (EDT) | Time (UTC) | Time (CEST) | Time (JST) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Start of final countdown (-11h23m) | 07:22 | 10:22 | 14:22 | 16:22 | 23:22 |
| Check of electrical systems (-10h33m) | 08:12 | 11:12 | 15:12 | 17:12 | 00:12 |
| Start filling with liquid oxygen and hydrogen (-4h38m) | 14:07 | 17:07 | 21:07 | 23:07 | 06:07 |
| Main stage chilldown (-3h18m) | 19 Oct 15:27 | 19 Oct 18:27 | 19 Oct 22:27 | 20 Oct 00:27 | 20 Oct 07:27 |
| Live launch feed begins | 18:45 | 21:45 | 01:45 | 03:45 | 10:45 |
| Final launch poll (-7m) | 18:38 | 21:38 | 01:38 | 03:38 | 10:38 |
| Tanks pressurized for flight (-4m) | 18:41 | 21:41 | 01:41 | 03:41 | 10:41 |
| Switch to onboard power mode (-1m) | 18:44 | 21:44 | 01:44 | 03:44 | 10:44 |
| Onboard systems take over (-4s) | 18:45 | 21:45 | 01:45 | 03:45 | 10:45 |
| T-zero | 18:45 | 21:45 | 01:45 | 03:45 | 10:45 |
| Ignition of cryogenic main stage (EPC) (+1s) | 18:45 | 21:45 | 01:45 | 03:45 | 10:45 |
| Ignition of solid boosters (EAP) (+7s) | 18:45 | 21:45 | 01:45 | 03:45 | 10:45 |
| Liftoff (+7.3s) | 18:45 | 21:45 | 01:45 | 03:45 | 10:45 |
| End of vertical climb, beginning of pitch motion (+12.3s) | 18:45 | 21:45 | 01:45 | 03:45 | 10:45 |
| Beginning of roll maneuver (+17.1s) | 18:45 | 21:45 | 01:45 | 03:45 | 10:45 |
| End of roll maneuver (+32.1s) | 18:46 | 21:46 | 01:46 | 03:46 | 10:46 |
| Booster (EAP) separation (L+2m21s) | 18:47 | 21:47 | 01:47 | 03:47 | 10:47 |
| Payload fairing separation (L+3m9s) | 18:48 | 21:48 | 01:48 | 03:48 | 10:48 |
| Acquisition by Natal tracking station (+6m26s) | 18:51 | 21:51 | 01:51 | 03:51 | 10:51 |
| End of main stage (EPC) thrust phase (+8m37s) | 18:54 | 21:54 | 01:54 | 03:54 | 10:54 |
| Main stage separation (L+8m43s) | 18:54 | 21:54 | 01:54 | 03:54 | 10:54 |
| Ignition of second stage (ESC-A) (+8m47s) | 18:54 | 21:54 | 01:54 | 03:54 | 10:54 |
| Acquisition by Ascension tracking station (+13m22s) | 18:58 | 21:58 | 01:58 | 03:58 | 10:58 |
| Acquisition by Libreville tracking station (+17m46s) | 19:03 | 22:03 | 02:03 | 04:03 | 11:03 |
| Acquisition by Malindi tracking station (+21m59s) | 19:07 | 22:07 | 02:07 | 04:07 | 11:07 |
| Orbit injection (+24m38s) | 19:10 | 22:10 | 02:10 | 04:10 | 11:10 |
| Second stage separation (L+26m47s) | 19:12 | 22:12 | 02:12 | 04:12 | 11:12 |
| Earliest expected spacecraft AOS (L+36min) | 19:21 | 22:21 | 02:21 | 04:21 | 11:21 |
| Latest expected spacecraft AOS (L+44min) | 19:29 | 22:29 | 02:29 | 04:29 | 11:29 |
| Solar array deployment complete (L+74min) | 19:59 | 22:59 | 02:59 | 04:59 | 11:59 |
| Monitoring cameras image MTM solar array (L+12hr) | 20 Oct 06:45 | 20 Oct 09:45 | 20 Oct 13:45 | 20 Oct 15:45 | 20 Oct 22:45 |
| MGA deployment completed (L+18hr) | 20 Oct 12:45 | 20 Oct 15:45 | 20 Oct 19:45 | 20 Oct 21:45 | 21 Oct 04:45 |
| HGA deployment completed (L+29.5hr) | 21 Oct 00:15 | 21 Oct 03:15 | 21 Oct 07:15 | 21 Oct 09:15 | 21 Oct 16:15 |
| Monitoring cameras image deployed antennas (L+36hr) | 06:45 | 09:45 | 13:45 | 15:45 | 22:45 |
| Cruise phase begins (L+3d) | 22 Oct 18:45 | 22 Oct 21:45 | 23 Oct 01:45 | 23 Oct 03:45 | 23 Oct 10:45 |
| Event | Time (PDT) | Time (EDT) | Time (UTC) | Time (CEST) | Time (JST) |
What happens after that? Here's a graphical summary, part of our Planetary Report article about the cruise to Mercury. (Note: If you represent a publication that would like this graphic in vector format, contact us.)
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