Technicians at Astrotech Space Operations oversee the mating of the MESSENGER spacecraft with the Payload Assist Module the Boeing Delta II third stage.

Technicians at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Fla., oversee the mating of the MESSENGER spacecraft with the Payload Assist Module, the Boeing Delta II third stage, below it. MESSENGER (Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging) is scheduled to launch Aug. 2 aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket from Pad 17-B, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. It will return to Earth for a gravity boost in July 2005, then fly past Venus twice, in October 2006 and June 2007. It is expected to enter Mercury orbit in March 2011. MESSENGER was built for NASA by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md.