The European-Japanese BepiColombo spacecraft, which has been studying Mercury since its launch in 2018, flew just 183 miles above the planet's night side during its final flyby of the planet.

Flawed rocket launches by SpaceX and Blue Origin still leave both companies in position to dominate the space sector.

Miss Sam, a rhesus monkey, successfully flew onboard a Mercury test capsule to prove the effectiveness of the launch escape ...

Related: Mercury stuns in incredibly detailed new images ... “One needs a lot of fuel with a very big rocket for launch, or one can use the help of the planets and do planetary flybys ...