End of MESSENGER

NASA to Celebrate MESSENGER Mission Prior to Surface Impact of Mercury

After more than 10 years in space, the highly successful mission will come to an end when it is expected to collide into Mercury at a speed of more than 8,750 miles per hour (3.91 km/sec) near the end of this month.

Launched in August 2004, MESSENGER traveled 4.9 billion miles (7.9 billion kilometers) - a journey that included 15 trips around the sun and flybys of Earth once, Venus twice, and Mercury three times - before it was inserted into orbit around its target planet in March 2011. The spacecraft's cameras and other sophisticated, high-technology instruments have collected unprecedented images and made other observations. Mission managers are preparing to impact Mercury’ surface in the next couple weeks. 

As NASA’s MESSENGER mission draws to a close, an on-board science instrument that mapped the surface of Mercury is helping the navigation team with the spacecraft’s low-altitude passes.


MESSENGER remains in an eccentric orbit but is passing much closer to the planet than before. Its periapsis altitude – the closest approach to the planet – now ranges from 6 to 39 kilometers (about 3.7 to 24.2 miles) above the planet’s surface.

The navigation team has laid out a schedule of orbit-correction maneuvers to keep the spacecraft operating as long as possible. To confirm that they have correctly predicted the spacecraft’s orbit during the close passes, they receive daily updates from the team responsible for the Mercury Laser Altimeter, an instrument normally dedicated to scientific measurements.