MESSENGER ARRIVES, Mercury Orbit Insertion Options

[Astro0]

Less than 20 hours now until the MESSENGER spacecraft fires its engine to enter orbit at Mercury.

Live Webcast March 17th – broadcast starts at 0030 UTC.

Follow the progress: http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/mer_orbit.html.
There will be commentary on the mission, real-time coverage of the maneuver, animation of what the spacecraft is doing, a view of the carrier’s Doppler as they receive it, and live video from MESSENGER Mission Operations.

Remember that the Canberra DSN is providing two-way communication with MESSENGER
We'll be using both DSS43 (70-metre) and DSS34 (34-metre) antennas.

Good luck to the team at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL).

[Holder of the Tw...]

"Finnegan told Spaceflight Now the spacecraft is in an orbit with a closest approach 128.5 miles above Mercury's surface and a high point of 9,482.7 miles. The orbit is inclined 82.5 degrees to Mercury's equator and it takes MESSENGER more than 12 hours to complete one circuit of the planet, according to Doppler tracking data."

So it's more than twelve hours, but they don't say how much more.

[Anders]

So it's more than twelve hours, but they don't say how much more.

Thank You,
I got the impression that it was exactly 12 hours. That would have been an interesting trade-off.