MESSENGER Orbital Photos of Mercury Ready for Release
NASA will release the first image of Mercury from an orbiting spacecraft tomorrow, and more images on Wednesday at a 2:00 pm EDT press conference. The images are from the MESSENGER spacecraft, the first to enter orbit around that planet, which is closest to the Sun.
MESSENGER attained Mercury orbit on March 17, 2011 after a six and a half year journey that included three fly-bys of the planet (plus two flybys of Venus and one of Earth) to get it into the proper position. The spacecraft already has sent back many images of Mercury, and now that it is in orbit can see previously unseen places. NASA’s Mariner 10 probe was the first to fly past Mercury in 1974-1975.
The Wednesday teleconference will be streamed live at http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio. Participants are MESSENGER principal investigator Sean Solomon and mission systems engineer Eric Finnegan.
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