Mission Timeline

    KEY EVENTS:

    August 3, 2004 -- MESSENGER Launch
    August 2005 -- Earth flyby
    October 2006 -- Venus flyby
    June 2007 -- Venus flyby
    January 2008 -- Mercury flyby
    October 2008 -- Mercury flyby
    September 2009 -- Mercury flyby
    March 2011 -- Yearlong science orbit of Mercury begins

    MISSION HISTORY:

    July 1999 -- NASA selects MESSENGER as the seventh Discovery Program mission
    December 1999 -- Preliminary design begins
    July 2001 -- Final design and construction phase begins
    February 2003 -- Spacecraft integration and testing begins
    December 2003 -- MESSENGER moves to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center for final space-environment testing
    March 2004 -- MESSENGER arrives at Astrotech Space Operations (near Kennedy Space Center) for final pre-launch preparations
    July 15, 2004 -- Mission/Science media briefing live from NASA Headquarters at 1 p.m. EDT
    July 29, 2004 -- Science and Technology Webcast live from KSC at 1:30 p.m. EDT
    July 30, 2004 -- Mission and Spacecraft Overview Webcast live from KSC at 1:30 p.m. EDT
    July 31, 2004 -- Launch Readiness/Science media briefing live from KSC at 1 p.m. EDT

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