http://www.newsweek.com/bepicolombo-international-space-mission-mercury-targets-october-launch-date-1045674 > BepiColombo, an international space mission to explore Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun, will launch in mid-October from Kourou spaceport in French Guiana—an overseas region of France—aboard an Ariane 5 rocket. > A joint collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), BepiColombo will involve three spacecraft: two orbiters which will conduct the scientific investigations and a “Transfer Module” that will carry these to the planet using a combination of solar power, electric propulsion and nine gravity-assist flybys of Earth, Venus and Mercury itself.