BepiColombo spacecraft completes close flyby of Mercury.

Europe's BepiColombo spacecraft will make its third flyby of Mercury, passing just 147 miles from the planet's surface. The flyby will use Mercury's gravity to slow the spacecraft down so that it can enter the planet's orbit in 2025. BepiColombo is a joint project by the European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and is only the third spacecraft in history to study Mercury. The spacecraft has previously flown past Mercury twice, in October 2021 and July 2022, and will make three more flybys before being captured by the planet.