Overview
- The Mercury Transfer Module was successfully jettisoned on September 3, 2026 and ESA ground stations received telemetry moments later that showed the spacecraft in a normal condition.
- The two science craft, the European MPO and Japan’s Mio, remain joined and will execute months of maneuvers leading to Mercury capture on November 21, 2026 and an expected Mio separation on December 9–10, 2026.
- MPO will jettison Mio’s sunshield later in December and then lower its orbit in stages to reach its planned final orbit by March 10, 2027, with routine coordinated science operations scheduled to begin in April 2027.
- The MTM powered the nearly eight‑year cruise using four solar‑electric ion engines and delivered its last continuous thrust on June 15, 2026 before being discarded.
- Mission teams recovered from a 2024 power and propulsion anomaly that cut ion‑thrust to about 90 percent and delayed arrival by roughly a year, but the upcoming capture and insertion burns remain critical and are being monitored from ESOC via deep‑space antennas with no direct images of the discarded module available.