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Space Topics: MESSENGER
MESSENGER Mission Facts
Mission Timeline
- Launch: August 3, 2004 at 06:15:56 UTC
- Earth Flyby: August 2, 2005 at 19:13 UTC
- Deep Space Maneuver #1: December 12, 2005 at 06:30 UTC
- Venus Flyby #1: October 24, 2006
- Venus Flyby #2: June 6, 2007
- Deep Space Maneuver #2: Late 2007
- Mercury Flyby #1: January 14, 2008
- Deep Space Maneuver #3: Early 2008
- Mercury Flyby #2: October 6, 2008
- Deep Space Maneuver #4 Late 2008
- Mercury Flyby #3: September 29, 2009
- Deep Space Maneuver #5: Early 2010
- Mercury Orbit Insertion: March 18, 2011
- End of Nominal Mission: March 18, 2012
MESSENGER
Artist's impression of the MESSENGER spacecraft at Mercury. Credit: NASA/Johns
Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
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Spacecraft
- Spacecraft mass:
- Total: 1,100 kilograms
- Instruments and spacecraft: 500 kilograms (7 instruments)
- Fuel: 600 kilograms
- Spacecraft dimensions:
- Body: 1.42 x 1.85 x 1.27 meters
- Sunshade: 2.5 meters tall by 2 meters wide
- Solar panels: 6 meters, end to end
- MAG boom: 3.6 meters long
Orbit
- Highly elliptical, nearly polar (inclination 80 degrees)
- Periapsis Altitude: 200 kilometers (124 miles)
- Apoapsis Altitude: 15,193 kilometers (9,420 miles)
- Period: 12 hours
Mission cost
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