BepiColombo’s Space Odyssey: Third Mercury Flyby Reveals Geological Wonders

The ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission has made its third of six gravity assist flybys at Mercury, snapping images of a newly named impact crater as well as tectonic and volcanic curiosities as it adjusts its trajectory for entering Mercury orbit in 2025.

The closest approach took place at 19:34 UTC (21:34 CEST) on June 19, 2023, about 236 km (147 miles) above the planet's surface, on the night side of the planet.

"Everything went very smoothly with the flyby and images from the monitoring cameras taken during the close approach phase of the flyby have been transmitted to the ground," says Ignacio Clerigo, ESA's BepiColombo Spacecraft Operations Manager.