NASA spacecraft now circling Mercury — a first (orbit is right on the money)

Yahoo ^ | 3/17/11 | AP

[NormsRevenge]

WASHINGTON – For the first time, Earth has a regular orbiting eye-in-the-sky spying on the solar system's smallest and strangest planet, Mercury.

NASA's spacecraft called Messenger successfully veered into a pinpoint orbit Thursday night after a 6 1/2-year trip and 4.9 billion miles and tricky maneuvering to fend off the gravitational pull of the sun. It is the fifth planet in our solar system that NASA has orbited, in addition to the Earth and the moon.

[The Cajun]

LOL. You went a long way for that one.

[ForGod'sSake]

Thanks.

[Jack Hammer]

Hooray for Captain Spalding, the African explorer -

Did someone call me Shnorer?

Hooray, hooray, hooray!

Yes, I once shot an elephant in my pajamas;
How he got into my pajamas, I’ll never know....

[theDentist]

"Can someone land it in the shopping mall
next to where the astronauts first planted
an American flag during the 7th Lunar Landing?"

[hal ogen]

I am disappointed in NASA. Could someone explain to me just how this helps moozlums learn about space technology (nobama’s ordered purpose of NASA)?

[theDentist]

Back in the days of real early history, 1930 or something, Abba ka-Dabra was looking at the Sun through a magic crystal and noticed a bright dot near the sun. He named it “mihir ku ri” which translates to “Mohammed’s goat”. NASA decided to investigate to see if it really was a goat, and to confirm his discovery.

[zeugma]

cool.

Uh, considering it's Mercury we're talking about, that's probably not how I'd describe it.

[zeugma]

received the anticipated radiometric signals confirming nominal burn shutdown

Radiometric?  Didn't we used to call this telemetry?

Wouldn't 'radiometric' refer to readings of solar radiation?

radiometer (rā'dē-ŏm'ĭ-tər) A device used to detect or measure radiation.

[dfwgator]

When will it circle Uranus?

[bert]

A Washington DC cab driver was at the controls

[Jack Hammer]

A buck eighty-five from Africa to here???? That’s an outrage...