Overview
- The transfer module separation is scheduled for Thursday, 3 September 2026 at about 14:00 UTC and will release the coupled Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and Japan’s Mio toward Mercury.
- Mission teams at ESA’s ESOC in Darmstadt described the step as highly time‑critical and will wait roughly 11 minutes for the first radio confirmation plus up to 1.5 to 2 hours for final onboard checks and antenna realignment.
- After separation the MTM will be jettisoned to a flyby trajectory while MPO’s chemical thrusters take over guidance for the capture sequence and subsequent orbital lowering.
- Planned next milestones include entry into a first wide, elliptical Mercury orbit on 21 November 2026, release of Mio into its elliptic orbit in early December, and MPO reaching its operational 450–1,500 km orbit by early March 2027.
- BepiColombo is an eight‑year ESA–JAXA mission that used an ion‑driven transfer module and nine gravity assists to reach Mercury, aims to map surface and interior with MPO and study the magnetosphere with Mio, and carries an estimated mission cost of about €1.7 billion.