Latest Mercury spacecraft Stories

Astrobiology Magazine -- NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft, headed toward the first study of Mercury from orbit, swung by Earth today for a gravity assist that propelled it deeper into the inner solar system. Mission operators at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md, said MESSENGER's systems performed flawlessly. The spacecraft swooped around Earth, coming to a closest approach point of approximately 1,458 miles (2,347 kilometers) over central Mongolia at 3:13...

Mercury-bound NASA probe snaps first approach shots before August flybyJPL -- NASA's Mercury-bound MESSENGER spacecraft -- less than three months from an Earth flyby that will slingshot it toward the inner solar system -- successfully tested its main camera by snapping distant approach shots of Earth and the Moon.MESSENGER took a set of six pictures on May 11 with the narrow-angle camera in its Mercury Dual Imaging System, or MDIS. Earth was about 18.4 million miles (29.6 million kilometers)...

MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging) is a scientific investigation of the planet Mercury, and the first NASA mission designed to orbit the planet closest to the Sun. The MESSENGER spacecraft launched on Aug. 3, 2004, and after flybys of Earth, Venus and Mercury will start a yearlong study of its target planet in March 2011. The mission operations and spacecraft teams continue to check out MESSENGER's science payload - and prepare for additional instrument...