Spring Break
APL-built Messenger satellite flies past Venus
En route to its final 2011 orbit around Mercury, the Messenger spacecraft took a quick trip past Venus earlier this week. The flyby marks the first time the satellite’s cameras and other scientific instruments were used for planetary observations. It also allowed for an adjustment of the orbital path of the satellite as it approaches Mercury, which it will reach in January 2008. The first round of data from the Venus flyby was expected to arrive Thursday afternoon.
(For more information about Messenger, check out the mission’s APL website.)
Hubble servicing mission is scheduled for fall 2008
Space shuttle Atlantis will lift off for one final Hubble servicing mission on September 10, 2008. The aging space telescope, which was launched in 1990 and is operated by scientists on the Hopkins Homewood campus, needs a rocket-assisted boost to a higher altitude to delay its planned final descent through the Earth’s atmosphere sometime around 2011. The Hubble’s eventual replacement, the James Webb Space Telescope, will also be operated by the Baltimore-based Space Telescope Science Institute.
And speaking of the space shuttle…
Space Shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 7:38 PM EDT on Friday, June 8. The mission, STS-117, will deliver solar arrays and other parts to the International Space Station. The launch has been delayed since mid-March, when a hailstorm damaged the shuttle’s external fuel tank. The latest weather forecast gives an 80 percent chance of favorable conditions for launch, with a launch window that extends through Tuesday, June 12.
Notes on culture and the news from the writers and editors of The News-Letter
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