Deep-Space Maneuver Positions MESSENGER for Mercury Orbit Insertion
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MESSENGER Mission News
November 24, 2009
Deep-Space Maneuver Positions MESSENGER for Mercury Orbit Insertion
The Mercury-bound MESSENGER spacecraft completed its fifth and final
deep-space maneuver of the mission today, providing the expected
velocity change needed to place the spacecraft on course to enter into
orbit about Mercury in March 2011. A 3.3-minute firing of its
bi-propellant engine provided nearly all of the probe's 177 meter per
second (396 mile per hour) increase in its speed relative to the Sun.
MESSENGER was 230.4 million kilometers (143.2 million miles) from Earth
when today's maneuver began at 4:45 p.m. EST. Mission controllers at The
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel,
Md., verified the start of the maneuver about 12 minutes, 49 seconds
later, when the first signals indicating spacecraft thruster activity
reached NASA's Deep Space Network tracking station outside Goldstone, Calif.
"The team was well-prepared for the maneuver," said MESSENGER Mission
Systems Engineer Eric Finnegan, of APL. "Initial data analysis indicates
an extremely accurate maneuver execution. After sifting through all the
post-burn data I expect we will find ourselves right on target."
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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 August 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 this Discovery-class mission for NASA.