Magellan to Venus . ... The spacecraft carried a sophisticated imaging radar, which was used to make the most highly detailed map of Venus ever captured during its four years in orbit around Venus from 1990 to 1994. After concluding its radar mapping, Magellan also made global maps of Venus's gravity field. ... The Magellan mission was divided up into "cycles" with each cycle lasting 243 days (the time necessary for Venus to rotate once under the Magellan orbit). ... Magellan Orbiting Venus . ...

GRANAT is the Russian x-ray sattelite launched to the high apogee orbit (200,000 km) and operated almost for 10 years (1989 -1999) , carrying out four major instruments: French SIGMA coded-mask hard x-ray telescope (30-1000 keV), Soviet ART-P coded-mask telescope (2??-60?? keV), all-sky monitor WATCH (6-150 keV), and a gamma-burst detector PHEBUS . ... Since September 1994, GRANAT is in the survey mode. ... Explore pages devoted to individual GRANAT instruments (including main scientific results): . ...

Target: Venus . The Soviet VEGA Spacecraft Two remarkable "busloads" of automated spacecraft were launched toward Venus by the Soviet Union in December of 1984. Each one contains three separate modules: one lander and one balloon-carried atmosphere probe to be dropped off at Venus in June, 1985, and one major package of instruments which will continue on to encounter Halley's Comet in March, 1986. ... Venus and Earth: A Comparison . Earth . ... in Earth days) . ... 243 Earth days . ...

Vega Stamps . International project VEGA was managed by Space Research Institute (IKI) . ... VEGA-1 and VEGA-2 spacecraft were developed by Babakin Space Center and fabricated by Lavochkin Association in Khimki, Moscow region. ... VEGA-1 and VEGA-2 have been the part of the international fleet to Halley's comet, that also included Giotto mission of European Space Agency (ESA) and Sakigake and Suisei by Institute of Space and Aeronautical Science (ISAS) of Japan. ... Vega 1 . ...

Since the days of Sputnik and Explorer 1, thousands of spacecraft have gone into space, some of them carrying human passengers. The first person to orbit the Earth was the Russian Yuri Gagarin, on April 12, 1961. The first American to do so was John Glenn, who completed three orbits on February 20, 1962; more than 26 years later, at age 77, Glenn returned to space aboard the space shuttle. ... in orbit. ... Manned satellites include various " space stations " intended for long-term residence. ...

... Gaspra . ... Comets . ... Galileo image of Ida asteroid 114k gif ; 41k jpg . ... Large false color image of asteroid 951 Gaspra 172k gif ; 33k jpg . Gaspra in true and false color 18k jpg , 140k gif , 596k tiff . Montage of 11 images taken by Galileo spacecraft of 951 Gaspra 75k gif 75k jpg . ... Gaspra, taken from Galileo, and Phobos and Deimos taken from Viking 96k gif ; 81k jpg . True & Enhanced Color images 140k gif ; 18k jpg ; 596k tiff . ... more NEAR images of Mathilde html . ...

... A significant amount of effort was devoted to the question of the properties and observability of meteors in the atmospheres of Venus and Mars. ... The work on meteors in the atmosphere of Venus complements earlier work by Christou (Planetary & Space Science, 47, 1475, 1999) which investigated the possibility of meteor showers on Mars. ... Figure 4: Comparison of Mutual Events Data obtained from Armagh Observatory (red dots) and Nyr?l? Observatory, Finland (green dots), on 15 March 2003. ...

... The Swirling Storms of Saturn . ... A view of many storms occurring simultaneously was captured in July by the robot Cassini spacecraft now orbiting Saturn. ... Eclipse Madrid . ... Of course, on October 3rd an added attraction was the Moon - seen in dramatic silhouette during an annular solar eclipse. ... The event was not a total eclipse of the Sun for any Earth-bound sky enthusiast but rather, at best, an annular eclipse, where the Moon blocked most of the Sun. The Milky Way in Stars and Dust . ...

... Observing . ... Spacecraft capture an Earth-directed coronal mass ejection . ... On August 20, 2013, at 4:24 a.m. EDT, the Sun erupted with an Earth-directed coronal mass ejection (CME), a solar phenomenon which can send billions of tons of particles into space that can reach Earth one to three days later. ... Only registered members of Astronomy.com are allowed to comment on this article. ... Receive news, sky-event information, observing tips, and more from Astronomy's weekly email newsletter. ...

Astronotes Armagh Planetarium's Stellar Blog! ... Concept Spacecraft . ... Monthly Sky Notes . ... October . ... By admin September 30, 2011 Posted in: Human Exploration . Gemini Spacecraft: The red and gold spheres in the Equipment Module are propellant tanks and the red cylinder in the nose is the parachute pack. ... Image credit: NASA) . ... Amazingly in 2011, an outfit called Space Operations Inc proposed launching updated Geminis (rebadged as Eclipse spacecraft) for commercial clients! ...

Ground Support of RadioAstron . Control and Tracking Stations . RadioAstron satellite control (command transmission, telemetry, orbit measurements) will be conducted from Evpatoria and Bear Lake control stations. ... Coarse orbit measurements will be carried out from control stations. Each measurement takes ten minutes. ... Orbit measurements at tracking stations give only radial component of spacecraft velocity but the measurements are going continuously during observing sessions. ...