MESSENGER Launch
MESSENGER launches to begin a complex seven-year journey that will culminate in the first orbital mission around Mercury.
Historical biography archive · Updated 2026-11-03
Sean Solomon Biography and Timeline
Follow Sean Solomon through 19 dated historical records for United States of America.
Sean Solomon, historical timeline
A chronological timeline drawn from matching World History Database records.
19Distinct records
1 of 1Page
2004–2016Years on this page
2004
2005
MESSENGER Earth Flyby
MESSENGER flies past Earth for a gravity assist and calibrates its instruments while continuing toward Mercury.
2006
MESSENGER Venus Flyby
MESSENGER completes its first Venus gravity assist, reducing orbital energy on the long route toward Mercury.
2007
MESSENGER Venus Flyby
MESSENGER makes its second Venus flyby, using the encounter to reshape its orbit for later Mercury approaches.
2008
MESSENGER Mercury Flyby
MESSENGER completes its first Mercury flyby and returns the first close-up observations of the planet in more than thirty years.
Mercury Volcanism
MESSENGER images provide strong evidence for ancient volcanic activity on Mercury, including identified volcanic vents.
Second Mercury Flyby
MESSENGER completes a second close flyby of Mercury and adjusts its solar orbit for eventual capture by the planet.
2009
Third Mercury Flyby
MESSENGER makes its third and final Mercury flyby before orbit insertion, further matching the spacecraft's path to Mercury's orbit.
2010
Solar System Portrait
During its cruise to Mercury orbit, MESSENGER photographs the planets to assemble a wide-angle portrait of the Solar System.
2011
Mercury Orbit Insertion
MESSENGER fires its main engine and becomes the first spacecraft to enter orbit around Mercury.
MESSENGER Science Mission
MESSENGER begins its primary year-long orbital science campaign to map Mercury and study its composition, magnetic field and environment.
Mercury Magnetic Field
MESSENGER results establish that Mercury's internal magnetic field is about one hundred times weaker than Earth's field.
2012
MESSENGER Extended Mission
MESSENGER begins its first extended mission after completing the primary year of orbital observations.
MESSENGER Orbit
Mission controllers reduce MESSENGER's orbital period to about eight hours, increasing the number of close Mercury passes each day.
2013
MESSENGER Second Extension
MESSENGER begins a second extended phase of Mercury observations, allowing progressively lower-altitude measurements.
2014
MESSENGER Low-Altitude Campaign
MESSENGER begins increasingly low-altitude Mercury observations as its orbit evolves during the extended mission.
2015
MESSENGER Impact
MESSENGER ends its mission by impacting Mercury after completing 4,105 orbits and transforming knowledge of the planet.
MESSENGER Final Campaign
MESSENGER conducts an exceptionally low-altitude final campaign, obtaining measurements from only tens of kilometres above Mercury.
2016
Mercury Topographic Model
A post-mission data release provides the first global topographic model of Mercury and expands the lasting scientific archive from MESSENGER.
Records, sources and methodology
These dates and descriptions come from the historical_events database. Exact duplicate records have been collapsed. Names are grouped by the country, Name 2 and Name 1 fields; records with missing Name 2 cannot be reliably assigned to an individual biography. Check the underlying sources before formal citation.