BepiColombo, a spacecraft made for the Mercury mission took off on Saturday at 1:45 AM GMT from the European spaceport located in Kourou. The spacecraft will take over seven years to reach the innermost planet, Mercury and unravel the mysteries that the earlier NASA missions could not solve.
After receiving the signals from the spacecraft via the New Norcia ground tracking station, its launch was confirmed at 2:21 AM GMT, by the European Space Agency's control center situated in Darmstadt, Germany.
BepiColombo, a joint mission of the ESA and JAXA, is their first mission to Mercury. Alongside, this spacecraft is also the first one that will be studying on the planet's dynamic environment and make complementary measurements both at the same time.
The ESA's director general, Jan Wörner said that BepiColombo is a huge milestone for both JAXA and ESA alike and also that there are much more success to come. He thanks the international collaboration and also states that this was the fruit of years of hard work by experts that are involved in the design and engineering of the spacecraft.
The JAXA president, Hiroshi Yamakawa, added saying that they have high expectations from BepiColombo that will help them study and observe both the surface and the interior of Mercury. Adding to that, they hope that this mission will help them understand the environment of the planet and, the Solar System including the Earth's ultimately.
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