Photomosaic of the planet Mercury. The Mariner 10 spacecraft was launched in 1974. The spacecraft took images of Venus in February 1974 on the way three encounters with Mercury in March and Sept 1974 and March 1975. The spacecraft took more than 7,000 images of Mercury, Venus, the Earth and the Moon during its mission (NASA Media Archives). Buy this as a superb wall poster, a canvas print or a framed print.