On May 4, 1989, the Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-30) lifted off from Kennedy Space Center. The crew consisted of pilot Ronald J. Grabe, commander David M. Walker, and mission specialists Norman E. Thagard, Mary L. Cleave, and Mark C. Lee. The primary payload for the mission was the Magellan/Venus Radar mapper spacecraft and attached Inertial Upper Stage (IUS). The Magellan spacecraft, which arrived at Venus on August 10, 1990, collected radar images of 98 percent of the planet’s surface, with resolution 10 times better than that of the earlier Soviet Venera 15 and 16 missions. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. held overall responsibility for the Space Shuttle’s external tanks, main engines, and solid rocket boosters.
Image Credit: NASA