Of Interest: On April 30, 2015, MESSENGER crashed into the surface of Mercury, bringing an end to orbital operations. The mood was both celebratory and somber in the MESSENGER Mission Operations Center, as dozens of scientists and engineers from the team gathered to witness the spacecraft's last telemetry signal before it plunged onto Mercury's surface. Watch this video to see the official announcement of the end of operations and final remarks from Principal Investigator Sean Solomon.

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

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