November orbit insertion planned at solar system’s innermost planet
“It’s a brilliant moment,” said lead project scientist Geraint Jones, speaking after controllers at the European Space Agency’s control center in Germany received the radio signals they had been waiting for. The separation had gone ahead as planned, but the signal confirming it took two anxious hours to cross the more than 124 million miles (200 million kilometers) separating the mission from Earth.
The operation is the latest step in a nearly decade-long journey for the two probes, which have traveled together attached to a cruiser for most of the voyage. They are bound for the solar system’s smallest planet and the one closest to the sun.
If all goes well, the conjoined spacecraft will enter orbit around Mercury in November. In December, the European and Japanese orbiters are to split from each other and begin mapping and studying the entire planet from different altitudes.
As of Thursday, the spacecraft still had 2 million miles (3.3 million kilometers) to go before reaching its destination.