LOS ANGELES -- A hulking, 5,384-pound spacecraft is nearing the end of a seven-year voyage to Saturn, where it will begin an intensive study of the solar system's second-largest planet, its rings and the stable of moons that orbit it.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A spacecraft named Messenger rocketed away Tuesday on a 5 billion-mile journey to Mercury, the closest planet to the sun and a stranger to camera close-ups for the past three decades.