MESSENGER ready for second Mercury flyby
Posted: Sun, Oct 5, 2008, 8:12 PM ET (0012 GMT)
NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft is set to make the second of three planned flybys of the innermost planet, Mercury, early Monday. The spacecraft will make its closest approach to the planet at 4:41 am EDT (0841 GMT) Monday, passing 200 kilometers above the surface. The flyby will be the second for MESSENGER, after one in January. A third flyby will take place next September before the spacecraft enters orbit around Mercury in March 2011. MESSENGER, which stands for MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging, was launched in 2004 on a mission to study the planet in much greater detail than ever before.
NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft is set to make the second of three planned flybys of the innermost planet, Mercury, early Monday. The spacecraft will make its closest approach to the planet at 4:41 am EDT (0841 GMT) Monday, passing 200 kilometers above the surface. The flyby will be the second for MESSENGER, after one in January. A third flyby will take place next September before the spacecraft enters orbit around Mercury in March 2011. MESSENGER, which stands for MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging, was launched in 2004 on a mission to study the planet in much greater detail than ever before.
Related Links:
| <<previous article | next article>> |
|
news in brief
|
|
|
|
news links
|
|
Sunday, February 1
INNOSPACE Initiates Joint Investigation with Brazil’s CENIPA Regarding HANBIT-Nano Mission
INNOspace — 12:03 pm ET (1703 GMT) NASA’s Mission Support Future Architecture Program
NASA — 11:39 am ET (1639 GMT) The Milky Way is embedded in a ‘large-scale sheet’ and this explains the motions of nearby galaxies
Netherlands Research School for Astronomy — 11:31 am ET (1631 GMT) Streaks on Mercury show: Mercury is not a "dead planet"
Univ. of Bern — 11:31 am ET (1631 GMT) NanoXplore and STMicroelectronics deliver European FPGA for space missions
STMicroelectronics — 11:27 am ET (1627 GMT) |
