Day: September 14, 1992

Magellan goes fourth at Venus

VenusNASA’s unmanned Magellan space probe, having completed three extensive campaigns of mapping the surface of Venus from orbit with cloud-penetrating radar, begins a fourth mission phase, this time sending constant engineering telemetry to Earth, where measurements of Doppler shift in the signal received allows Earthbound scientists to map the gravitational field of Venus. Magellan’s map-making days are over, having achieved a 98% complete map of the cloud-shrouded planet that it has been orbiting since 1990.

Star Trek: TNG spawns more action figures

Captain Picard figureCompletely unrelated to the brief series of toys released by Galoob durign the show’s first season, Playmates Toys begins to release a larger-scale series of action figures based on Star Trek: The Next Generation in late 1992, as the series’ sixth season is launched (and has become a TV favorite). The initial assortment of ten characters, a combination of Enterprise crewmembers and enemies for them to fight, is released, complete with copious accessories to make them popular with kids. But Playmates – whose biggest toy license previously has been Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – quickly finds that it has a new hit toy line on its hands, but the buyers are older than anticipated.

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