NASA Deliberately Crashed Magellan Into Venus in 1994 — the First Time an Operating Planetary Spacecraft Was Ever Intentionally Destroyed.

NASA Deliberately Crashed Magellan Into Venus in 1994 — the First Time an Operating Planetary Spacecraft Was Ever Intentionally Destroyed.

After four years mapping Venus, NASA flew Magellan into the planet it had charted. Controllers lost radio contact on 12 October 1994 on orbit 15,032, with the batteries nearly gone, and the spacecraft is thought to have burned up on 13 or 14 October. It was the first time an operating planetary spacecraft had ever been intentionally crashed.