ESTEC – Spaceflight Now

August 18, 2026

Breaking News

[ August 18, 2026 ] Live coverage: SpaceX to send Starlink satellites to orbit with Tuesday night launch from California Falcon 9
[ August 15, 2026 ] SpaceX launches record-breaking back-to-back Falcon 9 rockets for Globalstar, U.S. Space Force Falcon 9
[ August 14, 2026 ] NASA Administrator ‘extremely confident’ in Artemis 3 mission in 2027 Artemis
[ August 12, 2026 ] Mike Fincke, a 30-year astronaut with experience across four spacecraft, retires from NASA News
[ August 11, 2026 ] Firefly Aerospace pushes debut of Alpha Block 2 rocket to the fourth quarter of 2026 Alpha

BepiColombo Mercury mission tested for journey into ‘pizza oven’

July 10, 2017 Stephen Clark

Three spacecraft built in Europe and Japan have completed their final joint tests to ensure they are ready for departure to Mercury on an Ariane 5 rocket late next year on the nearly $1.9 billion BepiColombo mission to survey the solar system’s innermost planet.