MESSENGER

NASA's "Mager" Mercury spacecraft was launched on August 3, 2004 in a Delta-2 carrier rocket at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The "Mager" began a planned six-and-a-half-year, 7.9-kilometer exploration expedition. NASA's "Mager" probe has been orbiting Mercury for nearly four years. It is a long and fruitful journey, but the probe will eventually run out of fuel. New Scientist magazine reported that scientists will light their boosters for the last time on January 21, 2015, so that the detector can work at enough heights until March. But at that time, the detector will be very close to Mercury, which may lead to the melting of some of the welded materials in its structure. At that time, close-up shots will provide an unprecedented landscape of Mercury's surface. For fun, the team is conducting a competition to name the crater on the planet after a famous artist.