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. Launch is scheduled for July 30, 2004 from Pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. 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. 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