The Planetary Society Shares Media Resources for BepiColombo Launch Toward Mercury

On or after 20 October 2018, Europe and Japan are launching spacecraft together toward Mercury. ESA's Mercury Planetary Orbiter and JAXA's Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter will travel together through multiple Earth, Venus, and Mercury flybys and enter orbit at Mercury on 5 December 2025 before splitting apart.

Bill Nye, CEO, issued the following press statement:

“The BepiColombo mission to Mercury will take us to the planet closest to the Sun— the planet that helped us prove that relativity is real, the planet that is astonishingly hot on its sun-side and yet carries ice in craters at its North Pole. This wonderful spacecraft will let us learn more about how the Solar System began, where we all came from, and how, on our own planet, you and I came to be.”

The Planetary Society is pleased to provide information, expert analysis, and resources to journalists for this unique event.

Emily Lakdawalla, senior editor and planetary evangelist, has created a guide to follow BepiColombo’s launch. She has also edited one article for The Planetary Report on BepiColombo's launch and cruise by Elsa Montagnon and written another for Sky & Telescope on the mission's voyage and Mercury science. The Planetary Report is now open-access; a digital copy of the Sky & Telescope article is available to media upon request.

Lakdawalla is available for interviews. To schedule, please contact [email protected]. Note: Lakdawalla will be on Pacific time (UTC-7) through October 18, and on Central European time (UTC+2) from 19 to 29 October. Follow @elakdawalla and @exploreplanets on Twitter for real-time mission coverage.

Additional Media Resources

• Images: Visit The Planetary Society’s Bruce Murray Space Image library for beautiful photos of the BepiColombo spacecraft and Mercury, including many not available elsewhere.
• Articles:
  • How to follow BepiColombo's launch by Emily Lakdawalla
  • Voyage to Mercury by Elsa Montagnon for The Planetary Report
• Multimedia:
  • Planetary Radio: Return to Fiery Mercury with BepiColombo

This graphic was created for The Planetary Society's member magazine, The Planetary Report. A vector version of this file is available for editing and republication. Credit: Loren Roberts for The Planetary Society.