KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - At Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Fla., a worker adjusts an insulating blanket around the Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft. Two solar arrays will be installed June 24-25, followed by a deployment test. The spacecraft will fly past Earth once, Venus twice and Mercury three times before starting a year-long orbital study of Mercury in March 2011. Launch is scheduled for July 30, 2004 from Pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. MESSENGER was built for NASA by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md.
Location Kennedy Space Center, FL
Date June 21, 2004