The planet Mercury was photographed in 1974 and 1975 by which spacecraft?
Exploration of Mercury of Mercury at close range. After the encounter "Mariner 10" was in an orbit around the Sun such that for every one of its orbits Mercury made two, and the spacecraft and the planet would be able to meet again. This allowed the probe to pass by Mercury two additional times before completing the mission; these encounters were made on September 21, 1974, and March 16, 1975. However, since the same side of Mercury was illuminated during each of the flybys, at the conclusion of the mission "Mariner 10" had only photographed 45% of its surface. The mission ended when
Mercury (planet) apertures. Care must be taken to ensure the instrument isn't pointed directly towards the Sun because of the risk for eye damage. This method bypasses the limitation of twilight observing when the ecliptic is located at a low elevation (e.g. on autumn evenings). Ground-based telescope observations of Mercury reveal only an illuminated partial disk with limited detail. The first of two spacecraft to visit the planet was , which mapped about 45% of its surface from 1974 to 1975. The second is the "MESSENGER" spacecraft, which after three Mercury flybys between 2008 and 2009, attained orbit around Mercury on March