MESSENGER to Crash Into Mercury April 30
With no way to make major adjustments to its orbit around the planet Mercury, NASA’s robotic MESSENGER spacecraft will crash into the surface Mercury - moving at more than 8,750 miles per hour (3.91 kilometers per second). The crash is anticipated for April 30, 2015 in the afternoon according to U.S. clocks (early evening in Europe and Africa; Friday morning for Asia). The impact will add a new crater to the planet’s scarred face that engineers estimate will be as wide as 52 feet (16 meters). MESSENGER has orbited and studied the planet Mercury since 2011. The crash will end its extended mission, which has revealed unprecedented new information about the surface of our sun’s innermost planet.
Slooh will cover the event with a live show that begin at 3 p.m. EDT (19:00 UTC) on Thursday, April 30. Watch here.
The periherm - MESSENGER’s closest point to Mercury - at 19:26 UTC should result in impact. Deep Space Network on Earth will continue to track Mercury until 19:56 UTC to confirm that MESSENGER has impacted and is no more. If impact doesn’t occur, then the following periherm at 03:47 UTC on Friday, May 1, 2015 certainly will cause it, and the Deep Space Network will continue to track for 30 minutes more to confirm impact.