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ESA

ESA Project Scientist Johannes Benkhoff, gives an overview of the latest preparations for the launch of BepiColombo, which will be taking off on its 7-year mission to Mercury later this week.

Astronauts Tim Peake and Tim Kopra wowed hundreds of school children with tales from the International Space Station (ISS) on the same day the European Space Agency (ESA) attempted to land the Schiaparelli module on Mars.

It’s tricky getting to Mars. The voyage takes months, your spacecraft has to perform some delicate manoeuvres along the way and then – there is Mars itself! It has not been a welcoming world. Almost 50 missions have been launched to the red planet by a host of different nations and space agencies. Some 30 of these have failed or enjoyed only very limited success.