Briefly, MESSENGER successfully completed its burn around 9 pm last night and enetered into its highly elliptical orbit around Mercury. Congrats MESSENGER team. Next up: New Horizons and the Pluto/Charon double planet not-the-planets encounter in 4 years and 4 months. Nobody has told New Horizons yet that Pluto has been demoted since she launched from Planet to Trans-Neptunian Dwarf Object. I won't tell her if you won't.
MESSENGER Countdown clock here. (Now elapsed time clock)
The MESSENGER Probe becomes The MESSENGER Mercury Orbiter at 8:45 pm EDT tonight, assuming all goes well. Here's hoping it does. First data expected on March 29th.
The MESSENGER Official Website is here.
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