the second satellite to visit mercury is nasa's messenger. it stands for mercury surface, space environment, geochemistry, and ranging. it was launched on august 3, 2004. it made a fly-by of earth in august 2005. it made another fly-by of venus in october 2006. it made its first fly-by of mercury happened on january 14, 2008, a second on october 6, 2008, and a third on september 29, 2009. it made a map of most of mercury that "mariner 10" didn't map. the first image of mercury orbiting the sun was gotten on march 29, 2011.