The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
Go to topicThank you for liking
You have already liked this page, you can only like it once!
The Mercury Planetary Orbiter of the ESA-JAXA BepiColombo mission to Mercury during the final stages of packing ahead of its journey from ESA in the Netherlands to Europe's spaceport in Kourou. It is pictured here with the shipping container in background, which will subsequently be lowered over the spacecraft and the platform it is sitting on.
The spacecraft's 3.7m wide radiator side faces the viewer; this will be mounted with highly reflective fins to minimize absorption of heat radiated from Mercury, and to allow radiation towards deep space. The three oval shapes indicate startrackers, which will be used for navigation. The rectangular panel at the bottom close to centre is the PHEBUS science instrument, an ultraviolet spectrometer. Small thruster units are also visible in each corner. The magnetometer and medium gain antenna booms are folded on the top; the high gain antenna is partially seen to the left.