Spaceflight

The European Space Agency's science policy committee is expected to give the go-ahead next week for the €865 million ($1.11 billion) joint ESA and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) BepiColombo mission to Mercury.

The approval will officially start BepiColombo, which will be the third Mercury probe following two NASA missions: the 1974 Mariner 10 and the Discovery mission, Messenger, launched in 2004 and arriving in 2011.

The 2,300kg (5,000lb) BepiColombo spacecraft consists of an electric propulsion module and two orbiters with a rocket engine. To be launched by a Starsem Soyuz 2-1b from Kourou, French Guiana in 2013, it will be the second such science mission launched by a Soyuz from Europe's spaceport.

BepiColombo will arrive at Mercury in 2019 for a 12-month mission to study the planet's interior, vestigal atmosphere and magnetic field. The cost to ESA will be €665 million, while "the [member states'] agencies will invest about €200 million forthe [11] instruments and are signing a multilateral agreement with ESAto provide [them]. The biggest contributor to the payload is Italy with 30%," says ESA's science directorate's head of science projects Jacques Louet.

The ESA industrial contract for the spacecraft is €329 million, with the UK getting the largest share at 25% and Germany and Italy in joint second place at 20% each.