WASHINGTON — NASA will release the first orbital image of Mercury’s surface, including previously unseen terrain, on Tuesday afternoon, March 29. Several other images will be available Wednesday, March 30, in conjunction with a media teleconference at 2 p.m. EDT to discuss these initial orbital images taken from the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury.
NASA’s MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging, or MESSENGER, entered orbit March 17 after completing more than a dozen laps within the inner solar system during the past 6.6 years.
Media teleconference participants are: — Sean Solomon, MESSENGER principal investigator, Carnegie Institution of Washington — Eric Finnegan, MESSENGER mission systems engineer, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel. Md.
To participate in the teleconference, reporters must contact Dwayne Brown at dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov or 202-358-1726 for dial-in instructions.
For MESSENGER information and images, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/messenger
Audio of the teleconference will be streamed live on NASA’s website at: http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio
