This Demonstration shows an animation of the flight of the MESSENGER spacecraft's mission to Mercury. This spacecraft used a technique called gravitational assist six times—once with the Earth, twice with Venus, and three times with Mercury. Mercury orbit insertion occured on March 18, 2011.
MESSENGER stands for MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging.
The orbits of the planets have the following colors: Mercury: orange, Venus: brown, Earth: blue, Mars: red.