From Earth to Mercury,but not before visitingEarth once more

"NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft, headed toward the first study of Mercury from orbit, swung by its home planet [on 2 August] for a gravity assist that propelled it deeper into the inner solar system.

"Launched Aug. 3, 2004 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., the solar-powered spacecraft is about 930 million kilometers into a 7.9-billion kilometer voyage that includes 14 more loops around the Sun. It will fly past Venus twice and Mercury three times before moving into orbit around its target planet in March 2011, the start of a yearlong science orbit around Mercury."