MESSENGER returns to Mercury

MESSENGER is the first mission sent to orbit the planet closest to the Sun. On October 6, 2008, MESSENGER will fly by Mercury for the second time this year. During the encounter, the probe will swing just 125 miles (200 kilometers) above the cratered surface of Mercury, snapping 1,278 pictures and collecting a variety of other data from the planet as it gains a critical gravity assist that keeps the probe on track to become the first spacecraft ever to orbit the innermost planet beginning in March 2011.

Tkaen from NASA