The amount of time recorded from the instant a spacecraft is launched. The MET at launch is zero, and the elapsed time of a flight is then measured in normal units. If the time of a mission is recorded as 3/06:20:51, this means 3 days, 6 hours, 20 minutes, and 51 seconds. MET is recorded by clocks on board a spacecraft (which also carries Universal Time Coordinated clocks). The planned events of a mission, such as deploying a satellite, are timed by MET because it remains the same whenever a spacecraft is launched. If normal Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) time were used, a launch delay would require changing all of the GMT times for events.