The watch party at ESA’s European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, moments before the separation of the Mercury Transfer Module propulsion module from the two science spacecraft from ESA & JAXA.
And that will be the end of MTM, with its electric ion engines powered by huge solar arrays – its job is done.
It has been a long eight years since the launch to reach this key moment en-route to the enigmatic innermost planet of our solar system.
