On Friday 01 May 2015 history was made as NASA finally landed, well crashed on Mercury’s surface.
11 years since the mission was first launched, the first ever spacecraft to orbit Mercury plunged into the planet’s surface at a speed of 8,750 miles per hour.
The first ever probe to reach Mercury crashed when it ran out of fuel.
The impact of the crash caused a crater in the surface of the planet, an estimated gash of 52ft wide.
“A NASA planetary exploration mission came to a planned, but nonetheless dramatic, end Thursday when it slammed into Mercury’s surface at about 8,750 miles per hour and created a new crater on the planet’s surface,” NASA said in a statement.
The space agency added that the mission, which began in 2004, had achieved “unprecedented success”.
“Going out with a bang as it impacts the surface of Mercury, we are celebrating MESSENGER as more than a successful mission,” said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
“The MESSENGER mission will continue to provide scientists with a bonanza of new results as we begin the next phase of this mission – analysing the exciting data already in the archives, and unravelling the mysteries of Mercury.”