Mariner 10 Spacecraft. Launched on 3rd Nov 1973, Mariner 10 flew past Venus in February 1974 on its way Mercury. It returned some 3500 pictures of Venus taken by its twin TV cameras, clearly visible in the picture. It flew past Mercury at a height of only 271 km (NASA Media Archives). Buy this as a superb wall poster, a canvas print or a framed print.