Unmanned Space Mission - MESSENGER

MESSENGER Returns to Mercury

MESSENGER is the first mission sent to orbit the planet closest to the sun. On Oct. 6, 2008, at roughly 4:40 a.m. ET, MESSENGER flew by Mercury for the second time this year. During the encounter, the probe swung just 125 miles (200 kilometers) above the cratered surface of Mercury, snapping hundreds of pictures and collecting a variety of other data from the planet as it gains a critical gravity assist that keeps the probe on track to become the first spacecraft ever to orbit the innermost planet beginning in March 2011.

FOR MORE ON MESSENGER go to: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/messenger/main/index.html

HIGHEST RESOLUTION PHOTO OF MERCURY 90 MINUTES AFTER MESSENGER FLYBY AT A DISTANCE OF 27,000 KM

(NEXT AND FINAL OF THREE FLYBYS IS TO OCCUR 0N 2009 SEPTEMBER 29 - ORBITAL INSERTION IN MARCH 2011)