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Posted by baalke on May 29, 2007, 2:36 pm
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http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/status_report_05_25_07.html
MESSENGER Mission News
May 25, 2007
MESSENGER ZEROS IN ON VENUS
The MESSENGER trajectory correction maneuver (TCM-16) completed on May
25 lasted 36 seconds and adjusted the spacecraft's velocity by 0.212
meters per second (0.696 feet per second). The movement targeted the
spacecraft close to the intended aim point 337 kilometers (209 miles)
above the surface of Venus for the probe's June 5 flyby of that
planet.
The maneuver started at 12:00 p.m. EDT. Mission controllers at The
Johns
Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md.,
verified the start of TCM-16 about 7 minutes later, when the first
signals indicating thruster activity reached NASA's Deep Space Network
tracking station outside Madrid, Spain.
"Today's operation completed just as planned," says Mission Operations
Manager Andy Calloway of APL. "All subsystems were nominal going into
the maneuver, and the burn cutoff occurred right at the expected time.
Now that TCM-16 is behind us, we are focused on loading the Venus
flyby
command load to the spacecraft next week."
For graphics of MESSENGER's orientation during the maneuver, visit the
"Trajectory Correction Maneuvers" section of the mission Web site at
http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/the_mission/maneuvers.html.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and
Ranging) is a NASA-sponsored scientific investigation of the planet
Mercury and the first space mission designed to orbit the planet
closest
to the Sun. The MESSENGER spacecraft launched on August 3, 2004, and
after flybys of Earth, Venus, and Mercury will start a yearlong study
of
its target planet in March 2011. Dr. Sean C. Solomon, of the Carnegie
Institution of Washington, leads the mission as principal
investigator.
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory built and
operates the
MESSENGER spacecraft and manages this Discovery-class mission for NASA.
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