The MESSENGER spacecraft is prepared for a move to a hazardous processing facility the spacecraft's complement of hypergolic propellants will be loaded.

At Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Fla., the MESSENGER spacecraft is prepared for a move to a hazardous processing facility where the spacecraft’s complement of hypergolic propellants will be loaded. 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.