Tag: Mercury

  • Mercury-bound spacecraft gets an assist from Venus

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    A sequence of images taken by one of the monitoring cameras on board the European-Japanese BepiColombo mission to Mercury, as the spacecraft made a close approach of Venus on Oct. 15, 2020. Credit: ESA/BepiColombo/MTM The European-Japanese BepiColombo spacecraft flew by Venus late Wednesday, using the planet’s gravity to help redirect the probe toward its ultimate…

  • BepiColombo flies by Earth, completing first leg of journey to Mercury

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    A sequence of images captured by one of the selfie cameras on BepiColombo shortly before the closest approach to Earth. Credit: ESA/BepiColombo/MTM Working with a reduced staff due to coronavirus-related restrictions, European Space Agency flight controllers monitored the BepiColombo spacecraft during a flyby of Earth on Friday, a maneuver that used our planet’s gravity to…

  • Lean team readies ESA’s Mercury-bound BepiColombo for planetary flyby

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    Artist’s illustration of the BepiColombo spacecraft during its gravity assist flyby of Earth. Credit: ESA/ATG Medialab One job deemed essential by the European Space Agency during the coronavirus pandemic involves shepherding the BepiColombo spacecraft through a high-speed flyby of planet Earth next month, an immovable event on the $1.8 billion mission’s seven-year journey to Mercury.…

  • Chris Kraft, legendary flight director, dies at 95

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    STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION Flight director Chris Kraft at his console inside Mercury Mission Control. Credit: NASA Former Johnson Space Center Director Christopher Columbus Kraft Jr., the man who created the iconic role of NASA flight director during the Mercury and Gemini programs and whose no-nonsense, uncompromising management style defined control room…

  • BepiColombo Mercury mission tested for journey into ‘pizza oven’

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    A view of the BepiColombo spacecraft stacked in launch configuration at the European Space Agency’s ESTEC test center in the Netherlands. The sunshield cover for Japan’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter is pictured at lower right. Credit: Airbus Defense and Space Three spacecraft built in Europe and Japan have completed their final joint tests to ensure they…

  • John Glenn remembered

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    STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION Members of the public pay their respects to former astronaut and U.S. Senator John Glenn as he lies in repose, under a United States Marine honor guard, in the Rotunda of the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus on Friday. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls In an emotional remembrance, John Glenn was…

  • John Glenn, first American to orbit the Earth, passes away at 95

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    STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION Credit: NASA John H. Glenn Jr., a decorated combat veteran and test pilot who gained worldwide fame as the first American to orbit the Earth, went on to become a U.S. senator and, in the autumn of his life, returned to space aboard the shuttle Discovery,…