Urgent: NASA Launches MESSENGER Spacecraft to Explore Mercury

Urgent: NASA launches MESSENGER spacecraft to explore Mercury

WASHINGTON, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) — NASA launched its MESSENGER spacecraft early Tuesday, for the first mission of this kind in 30 years to explore Mercury, the least-explored and the closest planet to the Sun.

MESSENGER was launched as planned aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket at 2:16 a.m. EDT (0616 GMT) Tuesday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.