The Messenger spacecraft will skim as close as 124 miles above the surface of Mercury today in the first visit to the planet in over 30 years.
The flyby will provide NASA with close-up views and images of the sun’s closest neighbor. The spacecraft is scheduled to fly by Mercury three times before it begins orbiting the planet in 2011.
The last time NASA visited Mercury was with the Mariner 10 spacecraft in 1975.
Click here to read more about Messenger’s mission on the NASA Web site.
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