'All we're goingto see is a sort of bright, fuzzy blob.' 'Ourinstrument is not designed to look at Venus.' Procktor said. Unlike thetwo upcoming Venus flybys, only the Earth pass allowed researchers to make fulluse of MESSENGER's MDIS camera, as well as several of its six other instruments. 'There are always some little things that you didn'texpect.' 'We do alot of testing on the ground, but there's only so much we could do beforelaunch,' said Prockter. But the flyby also gave researchers their first opportunity towork with in-flight images - such as MDIS photographs of Earth's moon alsotaken during the rendezvous - that resemble what they hope to see at Mercury. On one hand, mission scientists usedthe Earth flyby to calibrate MESSENGER's instruments and make sure they were inworking order. The processis one-part test and one-part practice. But it took weeks for mission scientists to compile the images taken bythe spacecraft's Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) into the final movie. 3, 2004, MESSENGER swung past Earth almost one year later on Aug. The gravityassists the probe receives during each planetary pass help push it deeper intothe inner solar system.

The probe will fly past Venus twice and Mercury three timesbefore finally settling into orbit around the rocky planet in 2011.

The Earthflyby was the first of six planned for MESSENGER as it winds its way Sunwardtowards Mercury.

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