MESSENGER's Death Dive

Hey Space Placers!

NASA/JHU

 Please  Read my previous blog for background on NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft.

The spacecraft completed its final maneuver on April 24th. The spacecraft is predicted to impact Mercury on April 30th and make a crater 52 feet across. We will not be able to see this crater until there is another orbital mission, if ever, to Mercury.

UPDATE: The European Space Agency (ESA) has a mission to Mercury planned for launch in 2017 with an arrival of 2024

MESSENGER has been a very successful mission and has given us vast amounts of information, over 10 terabytes, about the planet closest to the Sun. It is now an explored world that will keep planetary scientists busy for quite awhile trying to understand all that MESSENGER has told us.

Well done MESSENGER.

Sky Guy in VA