MESSENGER stands for "MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging". It was launched from Cape Canaveral on August 3, 2004, after a one-day delay due to bad weather.[12][13] It took the probe about six and a half years before it entered orbit around Mercury. In order to correct the speed of the satellite it undertook several gravitational slingshot flybys of Earth, Venus and Mercury.