One of the most remarkable moments in early space exploration occurred during the final mission of NASA’s Mercury program. Astronaut Gordon “Gordo” Cooper spent more than a day in orbit aboard the ...
The BepiColombo spacecraft snaps rare close-up images of Mercury during a planned gravity-assist flyby in 2023. Credit: ESA / JAXA A complex mission to Mercury that began its epic space voyage six ...
Mercury has long been cast as the solar system’s burnt-out rock, a relic too small and too close to the Sun to hold many surprises. That caricature is now collapsing. New analysis of NASA’s MESSENGER ...