Mariner 10

Mission

Kind: Planetary exploration

State: Successful

Place: Venus

Operator: NASA / JPL

Date

Start:

Duration: 1 year, 4 months, 21 days

Mission Ending

Disposal: Decommissioned

Deactivated: March 24, 1975 (1975-03-25) 12:21 UT

Rocket

Rocket: Atlas SLV-3D Centaur-D1A

Kind: NASA / JPL

Manufacturer: Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Mass: 502.9 kilograms (1,109 lb)

Launch Site: Cape Canaveral LC-36B

Flyby

1º Flyby: Venus

2º Flyby: Mercury

3º Flyby: Mercury

4º Flyby: Mercury

Orbit

"You’re going very fast when you’re on orbit, going around the world once every hour and a half." - Robert Crippen

Lander

"The journey, not the arrival, matters; the voyage, not the landing." - Paul Theroux

Mariner 10 was an American robotic space probe launched by NASA on November 3, 1973, to fly by the planets Mercury and Venus. It was the first spacecraft to perform flybys of multiple planets. Mariner 10 was launched approximately two years after Mariner 9 and was the last spacecraft in the Mariner program. (Mariner 11 and 12 were allocated to the Voyager program and redesignated Voyager 1 and Voyager 2.) The mission objectives were to measure Mercury's environment, atmosphere, surface, and body characteristics and to make similar investigations of Venus. Secondary objectives were to perform experiments in the interplanetary medium and to obtain experience with a dual-planet gravity assist mission. Mariner 10's science team was led by Bruce C. Murray at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.