Illustration of the BepiColombo spacecraft during one of its flybys of Mercury. BepiColombo is a joint mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to explore Mercury. It launched on 20th October 2018 and will enter Mercury orbit in December 2025 after nine gravity assist manoeuvres (one of Earth, two of Venus and six of Mercury). The spacecraft has three components: ESA's Mercury Transfer Module (MTM), ESA's Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and JAXA's Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO). The MTM is the propulsion system for the journey to Mercury. The MPO has 11 instruments for mapping Mercury's surface and to look for water ice in polar craters on the planet's unlit side. The MMO carries five instruments to study Mercury's magnetosphere and atmosphere.