MESSENEGER: Counting Down to Closest Approach

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington, Posted on: Tuesday, 7 October 2008, 06:23 CDT Download full size image

The countdown to MESSENGER’s second Mercury flyby continues. This image is from the seventh set of optical navigation images and was taken about 20 hours before MESSENGER’s upcoming closest approach to Mercury, which will occur on October 6, 2008, 04:40:22 am EDT. Similar to the results from the six earlier image sets, everything looks as planned for the flyby. One more set of optical navigation images will be acquired before MESSENGER begins its planned Mercury science flyby observations.

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