File:Magellan_at_Kennedy_Space_Center.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Magellan
Sign in to saveAlso known as Venus Radar Mapper, VRM, Venus Orbiting Imaging Radar, VOIR, Magellan spacecraft, Magellan orbiter
NASA robotic space probe that studied the planet Venus
Key facts
- Mission type
- Venus orbiter
- Operator
- NASA / JPL
- Cospar id
- 1989-033B
- Website
- science.nasa.gov
- Mission duration
- 5 years, 5 months and 9 days
- Manufacturer
- Martin Marietta , Hughes Aircraft
- Launch mass
- 3,445 kg (7,595 lb)
- Dry mass
- 1,035 kg (2,282 lb)
- Power
- ~1,030 watts
- Launch date
- May 4, 1989, 18:47:00 ( 1989-05-04UTC18:47Z ) UTC
- Rocket
- Space Shuttle Atlantis , STS-30 / IUS
- Launch site
- Kennedy LC-39B
- Disposal
- Deorbited
- Decay date
- October 13, 1994, 10:05:00 ( 1994-10-13UTC10:06Z ) UTC
- Reference system
- Cytherocentric
- Semi major axis
- 10,470 kilometers (6,510 mi)
- Pericytherion altitude
- 295 kilometers (183 mi)
- Apocytherion altitude
- 7,762 kilometers (4,823 mi)
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Named after
- Ferdinand Magellan
- Operator
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory
- Country of origin
- United States
- Duration
- 1988
- Parent body
- Venus
- Mass
- 1035
- Manufacturer
- Hughes Aircraft Company
- Official website
- solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/magellan/in-depth
- Image
- Magellan - artist depiction.png
- Width
- 9.2
- Length
- 6.3627
- Significant event
- atmospheric entry
Show 10 more facts
- start point
- Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39B
- UTC date of spacecraft launch
- 1989-05-04
- Commons category
- Magellan (spacecraft)
- time of object orbit decay
- 1994-10-13
- space launch vehicle
- Space Shuttle
- orbits completed
- 15032
- capital cost
- 680000000
- powered by
- spacecraft solar array
- funder
- CNES
- space tug
- Inertial Upper Stage
Sources (13)
via Wikidata · CC0
~30 min read
Encyclopedic overview
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.
The Magellan probe was the first interplanetary mission to be launched from the Space Shuttle, the first one to use the Inertial Upper Stage booster, and the first spacecraft to test aerobraking as a method for circularizing its orbit. Magellan was the fifth successful NASA mission to Venus, and it ended an eleven-year gap in U.S. interplanetary probe launches.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Magellan” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.