Space
BepiColombo Begins Months-Long Approach to Mercury
The ESA probe MPO and JAXA’s Mio will remain connected until December as they approach Mercury together.
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Reusable rockets, Earth observation, constellations: orbit is becoming infrastructure.
Orbit is becoming infrastructure: reusable launchers driving down the cost per kilogram, constellations that connect and observe, Earth observation feeding agriculture, weather forecasting and climate monitoring. The section follows flights, commissionings and order books — SpaceX of course, but also the Chinese, Indian, Japanese and European launchers the general press skims over.
The angle stays the journal’s: what changes concretely, quantified and sourced. A launch is not a feat but a price per kilogram; a constellation is not a project but a number of active satellites and a service rendered. We distinguish the test flight from the commercial cadence, and the announcement from the signed contract.
The ESA probe MPO and JAXA’s Mio will remain connected until December as they approach Mercury together.
The observatory is traveling to Sun-Earth L2, where it will prepare for science operations.
The SmallSat will examine each target 10 times during its year-long primary mission.