Earth Day / / Crash of space mission "Messenger"

from Writer's Almanac dot-org (American Public Media, Garrison Keillor):
Today is Earth Day. It was first observed on April 20, 1970, but its roots go back to the 1962 publication of Rachel Carson’s landmark book (Silent Spring) exposing the effects of pesticides and other chemical pollution on the environment. Troubled by the lack of attention pollution was receiving on the national stage, Wisconsin senator Gaylord Nelson began going on speaking tours, trying to educate people and politicians about environmental issues, and while the public was concerned, the politicians didn’t pay much attention.
During the late 1960s, Senator Nelson had the idea to harness the energy and methods of the student protests against the Vietnam War to organize a grassroots conservation movement. At a press conference in 1969, he announced plans for a nationwide demonstration, to take place the following spring. It was a gamble that paid off, and the public’s response was enthusiastic. Gladwin Hill wrote in The New York Times, “Rising concern about the environmental crisis is sweeping the nation’s campuses with an intensity that may be on its way to eclipsing student discontent over the war in Vietnam.” Twenty million people nationwide participated in the first Earth Day, on April 22, 1970, and the government finally took notice, forming the Environmental Protection Agency and passing the Clean Air, the Clean Water, and the Endangered Species Acts.
According to the Earth Day Network, Earth Day is celebrated by a billion people, making it the world’s largest secular holiday.
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On Thursday April 29, NASA’s Messenger plunged from orbit as planned and slammed into the sun’s closest planet at about 8,750 mph (14,081 kph), creating a crater an estimated 52 feet (16 meters) across.
Messenger became the first spacecraft to orbit hot, little Mercury, in 2011. It circled the solar system’s innermost planet 4,105 times and collected more than 277,000 images.
“Today we bid a fond farewell to one of the most resilient and accomplished spacecraft ever to have explored our neighboring planets,” said lead scientist Sean Solomon, director of Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.
Solomon noted in a statement that Messenger set a record for planetary flybys — once past Earth, twice past Venus and three times past Mercury before entering Mercury’s orbit — and survived “both punishing heat and extreme doses of radiation” to surpass expectations. -- Washington POST reporter's article -- Marcia Dunn http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/doomsday-at-mercury-nasa-craft-close-to-falling-into-planet/2015/04/30/d94f7d9e-ef53-11e4-8050-839e9234b303_story.html?hpid=z4