The year 2009 has been a memorable and successful one for the MESSENGER mission. In September, MESSENGER completed its third and final flyby of Mercury, putting it on path to become the first spacecraft ever to orbit the Solar System's innermost planet in 2011. Until then, MESSENGER's three Mercury flybys have provided a wealth of new data, and Science Team members continue to examine these data sets and prepare for orbital operations. Though there is much to anticipate in MESSENGER's future, 12 image highlights from the last year provide a timely retrospective look back at 2009:
