Watch Live Tonight! ESA and JAXA Launch BepiColombo to Mercury @ 9:45 pm ET

Space.com ^ | 10/19/2018 | Space.com staf

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

"An Arianespace Ariane 5 rocket will launch a new mission to Mercury tonight, to send a set of spacecraft to the innermost planet! The joint mission by the European Space Agency and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency will lift off at 9:45 p.m. EDT (0145 GMT) from a pad at the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana. You can watch the launch live here, beginning at 9:15 p.m. EDT (0115 GMT), courtesy of ESA."

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Here is the link:

https://www.space.com/17933-nasa-television-webcasts-live-space-tv.html?utm_sour

[CodeToad]

It is amazing that a spacecraft could get so close to the sun and survive.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

We will see if it survives;

Another link:

https://livestream.com/accounts/362/events/8397642

[BenLurkin]

Very cool. Thank you for posting.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

This is taking place in French Guiana. They have a radar mounted on top of a hill surrounded by jungle. Its like watching something in a Star Wars movie...

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

It’s a fun 15-20 min diversion.

Its odd to watch—and listen—to a French Flight team directing this.

I keep looking for NASA flat top haircuts and guys with white shirts and slide rules in their pockets. (My youth...)

They indicate that they lost telemetry at liftoff. So they are waiting to regain contact.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

It was a Space.com pop-up. Just thought I would post.

It appears to be on its way. I will leave the rest to the earnest looking men watching their consoles!

(Signing off!)

[PhiloBedo]

Isn’t the country called Surinam, now?

[Moonman62]

This sucker won’t get to Mercury until 2025. It takes a lot of energy to put a spacecraft in orbit there, mainly to slow down I presume.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Surinam is Dutch Guiana. French Guiana is still French Guiana. They have Jungle. Beyond that I know not!

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

It has some enormous amount of Fuel on board, something like 46 tons (Or Tonnes, can’t tell the difference when its spoken!)

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Picture of Bepicolombo with extended Solar Panels. (Where are stars! Must be a Movie Set! ;)

The article is here.

https://www.space.com/42206-bepicolombo-mercury-mission-first-photo.html?utm_source=notification

[BenLurkin]

bttt