Emily Lakdawalla's What's up in the solar system in March 2011

[james_davis_nicoll]

I don't think there's any question what the big event of this month will be: MESSENGER is finally, finally entering orbit at Mercury on March 18 at 00:45 UTC (March 17 at 16:45 for me). If everything goes well, of course. As of today MESSENGER has been in space for 2400 days since its launch more than six years ago, on August 3, 2004! This will be a truly nail-biting evening. If you're in the neighborhood of Laurel, Maryland, there's a public event at APL, which you should attend. The usual mission preview press briefing will be at 10:00 PST / 18:00 UTC on March 15.