Space Luisa Fernanda
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Friday, October 16, 2026 · UTC
Missions & Exploration

Two spacecraft scheduled to enter Mercury orbit in November

ESA's MPO and JAXA's Mio will separate in December to map the planet from different altitudes.

Caleb Mbeki
Planetary Science Reporter
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The Mercury Planetary Orbiter and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter are scheduled to enter orbit around Mercury on November 21, 2026.[6] They are the two spacecraft of BepiColombo, a joint mission of ESA and JAXA, and the first to orbit Mercury with two spacecraft simultaneously.[5]