October 19, 2018 – Arianespace has successfully launched the BepiColombo spacecraft on its mission to explore Mercury, the smallest and least known terrestrial planet in the Solar System from the Guiana Space Center (CSG), Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, South America. BepiColombo is an interdisciplinary scientific mission designed to study the planet Mercury, carried out jointly by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Conducted jointly by ESA and JAXA, BepiColombo is an interdisciplinary mission designed to send two probes to Mercury, the smallest and least-explored planet in our Solar System, as part of a single composite spacecraft. BepiColombo is Europe’s first mission to Mercury, and will enable a better understanding of the planet’s history, geology, composition, atmosphere and magnetosphere.