What you need to know about the two spacecraft launching to Mercury Friday

Most deep space missions send spacecraft hurtling far from the sun, into the frozen unknown hundreds of millions of miles beyond Earth. But on Friday, the European Space Agency (ESA) will blast two orbiters to heavily cratered Mercury, the planet closest to the sun.

Liftoff of the two craft — collectively called BepiColombo — is scheduled for 9:45 p.m. ET on Friday. It can be watched live here.

A European Ariane 5 rocket will lift BepiColombo into space. The two craft will then spend seven years traveling through the void before arriving at their Mercury destination, a metallic outpost in a relatively warm part of the solar system.  Read more...

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