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Mission directory
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307 records
Snapshot 2026-09-06
Filters1 active
Active filters: Mercury
Open Mercury in the explorerThis view carries in full.
Launched 2018
Active missionJoint ESA and JAXA mission to Mercury, launched on 20 October 2018 as a stack of ESA's Mercury Planetary Orbiter, JAXA's Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (Mio), Mio's sunshield and interface structure, and ESA's Mercury Transfer Module. Its cruise made one Earth flyby, two Venus flybys and six Mercury flybys between April 2020 and January 2025 on solar electric propulsion, which ESA switched off for the last time on 15 June 2026. ESA's mission page, read on 2 September 2026, gave the status as in operation and en route to Mercury. Its countries are the contractor countries ESA's An international endeavour page names, plus Japan for JAXA; not an ESA member-state contribution map.
- Agency
- ESA · Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
- Destination
- Mercury · Venus · Earth
- Trajectory
- Trajectory unavailable
Launched 2004
Completed · SuccessNASA Discovery-class orbiter, built and operated by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, that became the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury. After one Earth, two Venus and three Mercury gravity-assist flybys it entered Mercury orbit on 18 March 2011 UTC, characterised the planet's surface composition, geological history, magnetic field and exosphere, verified water ice in permanently shadowed polar craters, and ended by impacting Mercury on 30 April 2015 after exhausting its propellant.
- Agency
- NASA · Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
- Destination
- Mercury · Venus · Earth
- Trajectory
- Precise trajectory
Launched 1973
Completed · SuccessNASA Mariner-series spacecraft that flew past Venus once and Mercury three times between February 1974 and March 1975 and returned the first close-up images of both planets. NSSDCA records it as the first spacecraft to visit Mercury, the first to use the gravitational pull of one planet to reach another, and the first spacecraft mission to visit two planets. Engineering tests continued until 24 March 1975, when the supply of attitude-control gas was depleted and the mission was terminated.
- Agency
- NASA-Office of Space Science Applications
- Destination
- Mercury · Venus
- Trajectory
- Trajectory unavailable