Mariner 10 was an American robotic space probe launched by NASA on 3 November 1973, to fly by the planets Mercury and Venus. It was the first spacecraft to perform flybys of multiple planets.
Mariner 10 flight spare
Reprocessed Mariner 10 data was used to produce this image of Mercury. The smooth band is an area of which no images were taken.
An artists' impression of the Mariner 10 mission. It used a flyby of the planet Venus to decrease its perihelion. This would allow the spacecraft to meet Mercury on three occasions in 1974 and 1975.
An illustration showing the instruments of Mariner 10
Mariner 9 was a robotic spacecraft that contributed greatly to the exploration of Mars and was part of the NASA Mariner program. Mariner 9 was launched toward Mars on May 30, 1971, from LC-36B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, and reached the planet on November 14 of the same year, becoming the first spacecraft to orbit another planet – only narrowly beating the Soviet probes Mars 2 and Mars 3, which both arrived at Mars only weeks later.
The Mariner 9 spacecraft
Mariner 9 launch
A schematic of Mariner 8/9, showing the major components and features