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Magellan

Magellan

The Magellan spacecraft, which arrived at Venus in 1990, made the first global map of the surface of Venus as well as global maps of the planet's gravity field.

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Mission Statistics

Launch Date

May 4, 1989

Type

Orbiter

Target

Venus

Status

Past

About the mission

The Magellan spacecraft, which arrived at Venus in 1990, made the first global map of the surface of Venus as well as global maps of the planet's gravity field. The mission produced surprising findings about Venus, including a relatively young planetary surface possibly formed by lava flows from planet-wide volcanic eruptions.

In October 1994, the Magellan spacecraft intentionally plunged to the surface of Venus to gather data on the planet's atmosphere before it ceased operations. It marked the first time an operating planetary spacecraft had been intentionally crashed.

Instruments

  • Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)

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