After 8 years, Europe's BepiColombo mission is on final approach to Mercury

The $2 billion BepiColombo spacecraft, launched in 2018 by the European Space Agency with Japanese and U.S. partners, has completed its final velocity-adjustment maneuvers after a series of Earth, Venus and Mercury flybys, positioning it for a Mercury orbit insertion later this year. The mission’s trajectory required extensive plasma-propulsion burns to overcome the high delta-v needed for orbiting the Sun’s innermost planet.