NASA
Happy Star Wars Day! Just thought I'd share this pic of the Magellan spacecraft being deployed from the payload bay of the orbiter Atlantis...a few hours after liftoff from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida 30 years ago today. I was at home when I watched live TV coverage of the space shuttle launch on May 4, 1989, and was totally enthralled. Even though it didn't arrive at the planet Venus till August 10, 1990, Magellan's launch was one of two events in 1989 that gave rise to my passion for space exploration—the other event being Voyager 2's flyby of the planet Neptune on August 25, 1989. I was in 3rd grade when Magellan began its mission into the inner solar system, while I was about to start 4th grade when Voyager 2 continued its historic trek through the outer solar system towards interstellar space.
NASA's Jupiter-bound Galileo spacecraft launched aboard Atlantis on October 18, 1989...but I wasn't aware of this mission till the following year! May the 4th be with you.
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