Thirty-six years ago today, Space Shuttle Atlantis launches STS-30, sending the Magellan spacecraft on its way to Venus (May 4, 1989)

Thirty-six years ago today, Atlantis lifted off from Kennedy Space Center carrying Magellan, a spacecraft built to see through Venus’s impenetrable cloud cover using synthetic aperture radar. Over three mapping cycles, Magellan mapped 98% of the Venusian surface, revealing a world dominated by vast volcanic plains, towering calderas, and terrain unlike anything else in the solar system. It was the most detailed global portrait of another planet ever made at the time.

[STS-30 Mission Overview](https://www.nasa.gov/mission/sts-30/)
[STS-30 Photo Gallery](https://www.nasa.gov/gallery/sts-30/)