title: Messenger's last hour link: https://onemoretech.wordpress.com/2015/04/30/messengers-last-hour/ author: phil2nc description: post_id: 9627 created: 2015/04/30 14:04:53 created_gmt: 2015/04/30 18:04:53 comment_status: closed post_name: messengers-last-hour status: publish post_type: post

Messenger's last hour

There's really no such thing as wall-to-wall up to the minute coverage of robotic spacecraft. About the closest thing I can get is a look at the DSN Now (NASA's Deep Space Network) page, showing real time communications between the ground stations of the DSN network and various probes beyond Earth orbit. Right now (14:00 EDT on 30 April 2015) the Messenger spacecraft in orbit around Mercury since 2011, is in its final hour before making a planned crash onto the planet's surface at 15:36 EDT today. Here's the view of current DSN operations (Messenger's communications are the focus of the image in the top left corner): Notice our old friend Voyager 2 is also talking to the network (all the way in the lower right). Curiosity Rover is as well (last icon on the top row). Ceres-orbiting DAWN's communications activity is shown just to the left of Voyager.

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