High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! BepiColombo is a joint mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to the planet Mercury, due to launch in 2014. The mission is still in the planning stages so changes to the current description are likely over the next few years. Due to budgetary constraints and technological difficulties, the lander portion of the mission, the Mercury Surface Element (MSE) was cancelled.