NASA Joins with Italian Space Agency for Mission to explore planet Mercury

While much attention has been focused on NASA’s planetary missions to Mars and the outer giants of the solar system like Jupiter and Saturn and their moons, an upcoming mission aims to explore the planet Mercury. Last week, the space agency announced that it will work jointly with the Italian Space Agency (ASI) on the Mercury mission.

The announcement came at the conclusion of a meeting in Rome last Thursday between NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and Italian Space Agency (ASI) President Enrico Saggese. The two men reportedly signed a Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation on the European Space Agency- (ESA) led BepiColombo mission to Mercury.

According to the press release from NASA, Bolden and Saggese were also in discussions about NASA’s plans for a new asteroid initiative. The initiative to land a spacecraft on an asteroid was announced earlier this year in President Obama’s fiscal year 2014 budget proposal.

Saggese reportedly expressed a strong interest on behalf of his agency for collaborating on the asteroid initiative. In addition, he welcomed the opportunity to discuss potential ASI participation in a long-term space exploration strategy.