WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

Workers at Astrotech Space Operations hazardous processing facility remove a protective cover around the MESSENGER spacecraft. It was moved the site in preparation for loading the spacecrafts complement of hypergolic propellants. MESSENGER is scheduled to launch Aug. 2 aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket from Pad 17-B, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., bound for Mercury. The spacecraft is expected to reach orbit around Mercury in March 2011. MESSENGER was built for NASA by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md.