Hazardous processing facility the MESSENGER spacecraft rests ready to receive the spacecraft's complement of hypergolic propellants.

At Astrotech Space Operations’ hazardous processing facility, the MESSENGER spacecraft rests on a work stand, ready to receive the spacecraft’s complement of hypergolic propellants. MESSENGER is scheduled to launch Aug. 2 aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket from Pad 17-B, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., bound for Mercury. The spacecraft is expected to reach orbit around Mercury in March 2011. MESSENGER was built for NASA by The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md.