BepiColombo: Joint Mercury mission ready for 'pizza oven'
Media playback is unsupported on your deviceThe two satellites that make up the BepiColombo mission to Mercury were presented to the media on Thursday. This joint European-Japanese venture has been in development for nearly two decades, but should finally get to the launch pad in 15 months' time.The two spacecraft will travel together to the baking world but separate on arrival to conduct their own studies.Thursday's event in the Netherlands was the last chance for journalists to view the so-called "flight stack".This is the edifice that goes on top of the rocket and comprises Europe's Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and Japan's Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO), as well as the propulsion module to control their path towards the world that circles closest to the Sun.As a single item, th...