MESSENGER began its 2,000th orbit around Mercury earlier this week, on May 22. The spacecraft completed its primary mission on March 17, 2012, and its first extended mission on March 17, 2013. The ...

But, in fact, it’s actually really difficult to reach the innermost planet of our solar system—which makes it that much more impressive that the ESA and JAXA’s BepiColombo mission has almost reached ...

Aerojet, a GenCorp (NYSE:GY) company, announced today that NASA’s MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging) spacecraft has successfully achieved the first-ever orbit ...

ESA's Solar Orbiter captured views of the planet Mercury passing in front of the Sun. Multiple instruments aboard the ...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) – The only spacecraft ever to orbit Mercury ended its four-year tour with a crash landing Thursday. NASA’s Messenger plunged from orbit as planned and slammed into the sun’s ...

Studying an atomic clock on-board a spacecraft inside the orbit of Mercury and very near to the Sun could be the trick to uncovering the nature of dark matter. Studying an atomic clock on-board a ...

The exhibit is comprised of a recently-restored Atlas missile and a mock Mercury capsule. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

NASA has sent the very first spacecraft into an orbit around Mercury, the closest planet on our solar system to the Sun. Now that it is there, NASA’s satellite MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ...

Mercury is the innermost and smallest of the eight major planets in our Solar System, orbiting closest to the Sun. Though only slightly larger than Earth’s Moon, Mercury endures some of the most ...

On March 25, the MESSENGER spacecraft completed its 4,000th orbit of Mercury, and the lowest point in its orbit continues to move closer to the planet than ever before. The orbital phase of the ...

After a six-year mission to become to the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury, the MESSENGER has finally sent back some images from the closest planet to the Sun. The MESSENGER (which stands for MEcury ...