Messenger at Mercury. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

NASA’s Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry, and Ranging spacecraft known as MESSENGER will fly by Mercury for the third and final time on Sept. 29. The spacecraft will pass less than 142 miles above the planet’s rocky surface for a final gravity assist that will enable it …

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WASHINGTON — A NASA spacecraft will conduct the second of three flybys of Mercury on Oct. 6 to photograph most of its remaining unseen surface and collect science data.

The MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging, or MESSENGER, spacecraft will pass 125 miles above the planet’s cratered surface, taking more than 1200 pictures. The flyby also will provide a …

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