BepiColombo spacecraft separate for Mercury arrival after decade-long journey

Two European and Japanese spacecraft separated from their mother ship Thursday, heading toward Mercury after a nearly decade-long voyage to the solar system's smallest planet. The conjoined BepiColombo mission is expected to enter orbit around Mercury in November. Controllers at the European Space Agency's control center in Germany confirmed the separation via radio signals after two anxious hours, with the spacecraft still 2 million miles from its destination. The mission, launched in 2018, is named for an Italian mathematician and follows only NASA's Messenger as the second spacecraft to explore Mercury. The spacecraft will split in December to map and study the planet from different altitudes, with science observations beginning next spring. The mission, costing about $2 billion, will examine Mercury's magnetic field, dense interior, and surface geology, including ice-filled craters at its frigid poles despite surface temperatures exceeding 800 degrees Fahrenheit.