Yesterday's Messenger flyby of Mercury didn't go quite as planned. Just as it passed the planet the spacecraft kicked into safe mode and there were no images from after the flyby. Kind if a bummer, but the pass was more of a 'gravitational steering' pass to get the spacecraft aimed toward orbiting the planet in 2010 - and that part was a complete success. At least a CTRL-ALT-DEL isn't needed.There were some very cool photos that came back before the computer barfed. The pass was 142 miles over the surface at a speed of 12,000 mph.
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