---
title: MESSENGER delivers its first image from Mercury
date: 2011-03-29T21:12:52Z
modified: 2011-03-29T21:12:52Z
permalink: "https://nko.org/messenger-delivers-image-mercury/"
type: post
status: publish
excerpt: ""
wpid: 916
categories:
  - Environment
tags:
  - Environment
  - first image
  - Mercury
  - MESSENGER
  - orbit
  - spacecraft
author: Paul Garrett Hugel
timestamp: 2011-03-29T21:12:52Z
---

## MESSENGER delivers its first image from Mercury

Mar. 29, 2011 | 14:03 PDT | 21:03 UTC

This is MESSENGER’s very first photo from Mercury orbit, a wide-angle view that reaches right to Mercury’s south pole, exposing a very tiny sliver of territory not previously seen by spacecraft. It was taken at 09:20 UTC today, March 29, 2011, the first in a set of 363 that formed MESSENGER’s first downlink of orbital images, the first downlink of very many. This particular image is not necessarily any more important than any other image; its importance lies in the fact that it was taken and downlinked right on schedule, indicating the spacecraft is performing exactly as planned. There’ll be a press briefing tomorrow with more images released, which I’ll be listening in on.

![MESSENGER's first image from Mercury orbit](http://www.planetary.org/image/EW0209877871I-cal_lg.png)

[Read Full story at Planetary Society](http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002981/)

## Topics

**Categories:** [Environment](https://nko.org/wp-content/uploads/wp-mfa-exports/taxonomy/category/environment.md)

**Tags:** [first image](https://nko.org/wp-content/uploads/wp-mfa-exports/taxonomy/post_tag/first-image.md), [Mercury](https://nko.org/wp-content/uploads/wp-mfa-exports/taxonomy/post_tag/mercury.md), [MESSENGER](https://nko.org/wp-content/uploads/wp-mfa-exports/taxonomy/post_tag/messenger.md), [orbit](https://nko.org/wp-content/uploads/wp-mfa-exports/taxonomy/post_tag/orbit.md), [spacecraft](https://nko.org/wp-content/uploads/wp-mfa-exports/taxonomy/post_tag/spacecraft.md)