MESSENGER ready for launch
Posted: Sat, Jul 31, 2004, 2:17 PM ET (1817 GMT)
NASA's first mission to Mercury in three decades is on schedule to launch early Monday, agency officials said Friday. The Mercury Surface, Space, Environment, Geochemistry, and Ranging, or MESSENGER, spacecraft is scheduled to lift off atop a Delta 2 from Cape Canaveral at 2:16 am EDT (0616 GMT) Monday. During its six-and-a-half-year journey to Mercury, the spacecraft will perform one flyby of Earth and two of Venus, then make four passes by Mercury before settling into orbit in March of 2011. MESSENGER carries a suit of instruments, including a camera, spectrometers, magnetometers, and laser altimeters to study the planet in detail. The only time a spacecraft has visited Mercury is NASA's Mariner 10, which made three flybys of the planet in the mid-1970s.
NASA's first mission to Mercury in three decades is on schedule to launch early Monday, agency officials said Friday. The Mercury Surface, Space, Environment, Geochemistry, and Ranging, or MESSENGER, spacecraft is scheduled to lift off atop a Delta 2 from Cape Canaveral at 2:16 am EDT (0616 GMT) Monday. During its six-and-a-half-year journey to Mercury, the spacecraft will perform one flyby of Earth and two of Venus, then make four passes by Mercury before settling into orbit in March of 2011. MESSENGER carries a suit of instruments, including a camera, spectrometers, magnetometers, and laser altimeters to study the planet in detail. The only time a spacecraft has visited Mercury is NASA's Mariner 10, which made three flybys of the planet in the mid-1970s.
Related Links:
| <<previous article | next article>> |
|
news in brief
|
|
|
|
news links
|
|
Monday, October 20
Innospace secures Korea's first private commercial launch license for Hanbit-Nano mission
Chosun Ilbo — 7:34 am ET (1134 GMT) Innospace Obtains Korea’s First Private Commercial Launch Permit
BusinessKorea — 7:34 am ET (1134 GMT) Korea’s 1st commercial space vehicle cleared for launch, likely in November
Korea Times — 7:34 am ET (1134 GMT) Innospace Gets South Korean Launch Authorization For Hanbit-Nano
Aviation Week — 7:33 am ET (1133 GMT) SpaceX launches Falcon 9 carrying Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral on Sunday
WESH-TV Orlando — 7:33 am ET (1133 GMT) |
