BepiColombo skims past Venus Inhaltsverzeichnis einblenden Inhaltsverzeichnis ausblenden The joint European-Japanese BepiColombo mission captured this view of Venus on 10 August 2021 as the spacecraft passed the planet for a gravity assist manoeuvre. The manoeuvre, the second at Venus and the third of nine flybys overall, helped steer the spacecraft on course for Mercury. During its seven-year cruise to the smallest and innermost planet of the Solar System, BepiColombo makes one flyby at Earth, two at Venus and six at Mercury to brake against the gravitational pull of the Sun in order to enter orbit around Mercury. Its first Mercury flyby will take place 1-2 October 2021 ( ESA/BepiColombo/MTM, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO)
