BepiColombo:
BepiColombo's journey to Mercury will last up to three and a half years. The European Space Agency probes will continue to hammer away at key science questions about mysterious Mercury - including why it has such a powerful magnetic field and density.

The twin orbiters will also search for more signs of possible water ice in some of Mercury's permanently-shadowed craters.

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Aug 2013:  Launch Jan 2020:  End of Mission Status:  Under development		27 Feb 2007:  ESA Gives Go-ahead to build BepiColombo 18 Nov 2004:  BepiColombo Payload 6 Nov 2003:  Europe Scaling Back More Headlines
The mission is named for Professor Giuseppe (Bepi) Colombo (1920-1984), an Italian mathematician and engineer. Professor Colombo suggested to NASA how to use a gravity-assist swing-by of Venus to place the Mariner 10 spacecraft in a solar orbit that would allow it to fly by Mercury three times in 1974-5. It will take two Russian Soyuz-Fregat rockets to launch all the spacecraft.		Solar System Bodies: Mercury BepiColombo Multimedia Gallery European Space Agency: BepiColombo Homepage National Space Science Data Center: BepiColombo European Space Agency: BepiColombo Image Gallery