Mercury Messenger Probe Flips Sunshade Towards The Sun

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This artistacutes impression shows NASAacutes Mercury-bound MESSENGER from the sunshade side. The sunshade shields the spacecraftacutes instruments from heat and solar radiation. Image Credit: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
This artist's impression shows NASA's Mercury-bound MESSENGER from the sunshade side. The sunshade shields the spacecraft's instruments from heat and solar radiation. Image Credit: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory

The Messenger spacecraft performed its final "flip" maneuver for the mission on June 21. Responding to commands sent from the Messenger Mission Operations Center at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., through NASA's Deep Space Network antenna station near Goldstone, Calif., the spacecraft rotated 180 degrees, pointing its sunshade toward the Sun.


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