A Japanese-European trip to the Sun Neighbors begins Friday

The latest preparations for the launch of a joint European-Japanese space flight are being held on Friday evening for Mercury, the closest planet to the sun.

The Ariane 5 is to carry the spacecraft "Baby Colombo" into space orbit from French Guiana, northern Brazil, late Friday, after which the vehicle begins its seven-year trip to Mercury.

The task faces many obstacles, including the attractiveness of pulling the strong sun, forcing the spacecraft to take an oval path, including flying low twice around the Venus and six times around Mercury itself.
Once the "Baby Colombo" - named after an Italian scientist - arrived in late 2025, two separate probes will be launched to search independently of the surface and Mercury's magnetic field.

The last spacecraft to visit Mercury was the NASA probe "Missinger", which ended its mission in 2015.