MESSENGER Mission News
August 1, 2005
http://messenger.jhuapl.edu

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Follow MESSENGER Back to Earth – and Beyond

MESSENGER is on its way back to Earth for a gravity assist that will send it deeper into the inner solar system. You can follow the event on the MESSENGER Web site by going to the Earth Flyby section at http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/flyby/index.html, which offers a complete look at the August 2 gravity assist – from simulated views of MESSENGER’s progress, to a flyby timeline of spacecraft activity, to details about the best places for observers to see MESSENGER as is swings past Earth.

Keep an eye on the site in the coming days and weeks for images and other information from the maneuver.

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Can You See MESSENGER?

Observers with small telescopes in Japan, Eurasia and Africa will have the best chance to spot MESSENGER as it makes its closest approach to Earth – 1,458 miles (2,347 kilometers) above Mongolia at 3:13 p.m. EDT (19:13:08 UT) on August 2. A few hours later, as MESSENGER speeds away from Earth over South America, observers with large telescopes in North America might see it low in the south after sunset, at perhaps 14th magnitude.

For more information, visit the "Look for MESSENGER" page at http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/flyby/look_for.html.

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Stat Corner

MESSENGER is about 243,000 miles (391,000 kilometers) from Earth and 94.2 million miles (151.6 million kilometers) from the Sun. At that distance, a signal from Earth reaches the spacecraft in 1.3 seconds. The spacecraft is moving around the Sun at 65,803 miles (105,900 kilometers) per hour.

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MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging) is a NASA-sponsored scientific investigation of the planet Mercury, and the first space mission designed to orbit the planet closest to the Sun. The MESSENGER spacecraft launched on Aug. 3, 2004, and after flybys of Earth, Venus and Mercury will start a yearlong study of its target planet in March 2011. Dr. Sean C. Solomon, of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, leads the mission as principal investigator. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory built and operates the MESSENGER spacecraft and manages the Discovery-class mission for NASA.