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25 years ago today, the Magellan spacecraft successfully inserted itself into Venus’s orbit. Launched from a NASA Space Shuttle one year earlier, the 2282 lb robotic probe was sent to map the surface of Venus using radar and to collect other data. During itsfour years of service, Magellan was the first spacecraft to test aerobraking as a method for circularizing its orbit. Today is also the date Magellan, the Portuguese explorer for which the mission was named, first set sail with his fleet in 1519 that successfully circumnavigated the globe. (1988)
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