Despite all the hype, the Messenger spacecraft went into safe mode on it’s flyby of Mercury yesterday. So all of the images and information it intended to send were never fully realized. It was still seen as a successful mission as its primary objective was to get the gravity assist it required to ensure a 2011 orbit insertion. It may be less than we hoped for, but the views or Mercury were still worth the wait. Next time around we should expect to  see detailed mapping of the Mercury landscape, proving that even when they fail NASA still pulls off some impressive results.