BepiColombo grazes Venus in a second swing-by, at an altitude of just 550 km

By Elizabeth Tasker

The joint ESA-JAXA mission to Mercury, BepiColombo, performed a Venus swing-by on the way to Mercury. The spacecraft comprises of two Mercury orbiters, ESA's MPO orbiter and JAXA's MIO. The Cosmos blog looks at the plans for the swing-by, which brought the spacecraft to an altitude of just 550 km above our neighbouring planet, and the observation plan for MIO.