Cartography and Imaging Sciences

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 was the first planetary spacecraft to be launched by a space shuttle when it was carried aloft by the shuttle Atlantis from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 4, 1989. Atlantis took Magellan into low Earth orbit, where it was released from the shuttle's cargo bay. A solid-fuel motor called the Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) then fired, sending Magellan on a 15-month cruise looping around the sun 1-1/2 times before it arrived at Venus on August 10, 1990. A solid-fuel motor on Magellan then fired, placing the spacecraft in orbit around Venus.

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. Flight controllers also tested a new maneuvering technique called aerobraking, which uses a planet's atmosphere to slow or steer a spacecraft. On October 11, 1994, Magellan's orbit was lowered a final time, causing the spacecraft to become caught in the atmosphere and plunge to the surface; contact was lost the following day. Although much of Magellan was believed to be vaporized, some sections probably hit the planet's surface intact.