MESSENGER enters orbit around Mercury
Date in UTC
MESSENGER entered Mercury orbit at 00:45 UT. First spacecraft to orbit Mercury. March 17 in some US time zones; this record uses UT.
Historical significance
First spacecraft to orbit Mercury.
- Category
- Mission Operations and Milestones
- Type
- Orbit insertion
- Mission
- Messenger
- Programme
- Discovery
- Organization
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Destination
- planet
- Target body
- Mercury
- Country
- US
Sources and attribution
- NASA — MESSENGER mission (opens in a new tab) — Original factual summary; retain attribution to NASA.