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NASA's Magellan mission to Venus was one of the most successful deep space missions. It was the first spacecraft to image the entire surface of Venus and made several discoveries about the planet. Magellan burned up about 10 hours after being commanded to plunge into the Venusian atmosphere.
The Magellan spacecraft was a 1,035-kilogram (2,282 lb) robotic space probe launched by NASA on May 4, 1989. Its mission objectives were to map the surface of Venus by using synthetic-aperture radar and to measure the planetary gravitational field. [2]
The purpose of the crash landing is to gain data on the planet's atmosphere and on the performance of the spacecraft as it descends. This home page offers Venus images taken by Magellan and other highlights from the mission.
NASA's Magellan spacecraft used a sophisticated imaging radar to make the most highly detailed maps of Venus ever captured during its four years in orbit around Earth's sister planet from 1990 to 1994. After concluding its radar mapping, Magellan made global maps of Venus's gravity field.
Launch and mission information on NASA's Magellan mission, which mapped the surface of Venus and its gravity field.
Magellan returned maps of Venus's surface and its gravity field in unprecedented detail that will be a resource for many years for scientists studying the planet. The mission held many surprises for scientists, and resulted in a number of theories about the planet being revised.
The Magellan spacecraft, named after the sixteenth-century Portuguese explorer whose expedition first circumnavigated the Earth, was launched May 4, 1989, and arrived at Venus on August 10, 1990. Magellan's solid rocket motor placed it into a near-polar elliptical orbit around the planet.
