Catalog Page for PIA14227

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PIA14227: MESSENGER puts its Stamp on History

Target Name:	Mercury
Is a satellite of:	Sol (our sun)
Mission:	MESSENGER
Product Size:	330 x 194 pixels (w x h)
Produced By:	Johns Hopkins University/APL
Full-Res TIFF:	PIA14227.tif (192.5 kB)
Full-Res JPEG:	PIA14227.jpg (15.95 kB)

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

The first spacecraft to orbit Mercury has been honored with a United States Postal Service "forever" stamp, issued on May 4, 2011. MESSENGER shares the honor with another space pioneer, Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard, the first American in space.

The stamp pair commemorates NASA's Project Mercury and Alan Shepard's historic launch on May 5, 1961, aboard the spacecraft Freedom 7, and the APL-built and operated MESSENGER, which went into orbit around Mercury on March 17 of this year. According to the NASA press release for the stamps, "The two missions frame a remarkable 50-year period in which America advanced space exploration through more than 1,500 manned and unmanned flights."

These images are from MESSENGER, a NASA Discovery mission to conduct the first orbital study of the innermost planet, Mercury. For information regarding the use of images, see the MESSENGER image use policy.

Image Credit:

U.S. Postal Service

Image Addition Date:

2011-05-06