Countdown to Europe's 'nail-biting' first mission to Mercury

Engineers are carrying out final checks on the Ariane 5 rocket before it launches Europe's most ambitious spacecraft. Flight VA245 is due to lift off from the European Space Agency's (ESA) base in Kourou, French Guiana, in the early hours of Saturday. It will take the BepiColombo spacecraft into orbit around Earth, the first stage of a five billion mile journey to Mercury. The joint European and Japanese mission will study the structure and evolution of the closest planet to the Sun. More

(Source: Sky News - Oct 19)