PIA14227: MESSENGER puts its Stamp on History


MESSENGER puts its Stamp on History

Caption:

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."

Background Info:

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 .

Cataloging Keywords:

Name Value Additional Values
Target Mercury
System
Target Type Planet
Mission MESSENGER
Instrument Host MESSENGER
Host Type Orbiter
Instrument
Detector
Extra Keywords Color
Acquisition Date
Release Date 2011-05-06
Date in Caption 1961-05-05 2011-05-04
Image Credit U.S. Postal Service
Source photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA14227
Identifier PIA14227