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 . ...

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. ...

Cosmic Research, Vol. 42, No. 5, 2004, pp. 435­488. Translated from Kosmicheskie Issledovaniya, Vol. 42, No. 5, 2004, pp. 453­508. Original Russian Text Copyright © 2004 by Veselovsky, Panasyuk, Avdyushin, Bazilevskaya, Belov, Bogachev, Bogod, Bogomolov, Bothmer, Boyarchuk, Vashenyuk, Vlasov, Gnezdilov, Gorgutsa, Grechnev, Denisov, Dmitriev, Dryer, Yermolaev, Eroshenko, Zherebtsov, Zhitnik, Zhukov, Zastenker, Zelenyi, Zeldovich, Ivanov-Kholodnyi, Ignat'ev, Ishkov, Kolomiytsev, Krasheninnikov, Kudela,