Sunshield integration

The sunshield unit is lowered over the BepiColombo spacecraft stack. It will protect JAXA’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter on the cruise.

BepiColombo is a joint endeavour between ESA and JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter sits at the top of the stack inside the sunshield, ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter is in the middle, and ESA’s Mercury Transfer Module is at the bottom.