More than 470 years after Ferdinand Magellan's historic voyage, a spacecraft bearing his name is traveling around another world, unlocking its mysteries. The new Magellan is gathering data from Venus that will be used by scientists to better understand the dynamic forces that drive planet Earth. Magellan was the first U.S. interplanetary mission since the Pioneer Venus launches in 1978. Boeing Satellite Development Center in El Segundo, California, was responsible for the radar mapper, which was the sole scientific payload and heart of the Magellan mission.