Europe, Japan ready spacecraft for 7-year journey to Mercury
(WorldNews Japan)

BERLIN (AP) ` Final preparations are underway for the launch of a joint-European and Japanese mission to Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun.An Ariane 5 rocket is scheduled to lift the BepiColombo spacecraft into orbit from French Guiana late Friday, after which it will begin its seven-year journey to Mercury.The mission is complicated by the intense gravity pull of the sun, forcing the spacecraft take an elliptical path that involves two fly-bys of Venus and six of Mercury ......