July 12, 1988 -
Phobos 2 - USSR Phobos Flyby/Lander - 5,000 kg
Phobos 2 arrived at Mars and was inserted into orbit on January 30, 1989. The orbiter moved within 800 kilometers of Phobos and then failed. The lander never made it to Phobos.
May 4, 1989 - 1994 -
Magellan - USA Venus Orbiter - 3,545 kg
Magellan was released into Earth's orbit from a space shuttle and then injected into a transer orbit to Venus by an upper stage. Its primary mission was to map Venus using synthetic aperture radar. The surface of Venus is obscured by thick clouds of carbon dioxide that makes the surface invisible to optical instruments. It arrived at Venus on August 10, 1990. Its radar imaging system was able to produce images at 300 meters/pixel resolution.
October 18, 1989 -
Galileo - USA & Europe
Jupiter Orbiter/Atmospheric Probe - 2,222 kg
Galileo was designed to study Jupiter's atmosphere, satellites and surrounding magnetosphere for 2 years. In order to get there, it used gravity assist techniques to pick up speed by flying past Venus on February 10, 1990. It then flew past the Earth & Moon on December 8, 1990 and then again on December 8, 1992. It has made encounters with asteroid 951 Gaspra on October 29, 1991, and asteroid 243 Ida on August 28, 1993.
January 24, 1990 -
Muses-A - Japan Lunar Orbiters
This consisted of two small orbiters but failed to send back data from their orbit around the
Moon. This was the first non USA or USSR probe to reach Moon.
April 25, 1990 -
Hubble Space Telescope - USA & Europe Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope has returned high-resolution
images of Mars and the other outer planets of the
Solar System. In July 1994, it photographed the collision of
Comet
Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter.
October 6, 1990 -
Ulysses - USA & Europe Solar Flyby - 370 kg
The Ulysses spacecraft is an international project to study the poles of the
Sun and interstellar space above and below the poles. It used Jupiter for a gravity assist to swing out of the ecliptic plane and onward to the poles of the Sun. The Jupiter flyby was on February 8, 1992. The first solar polar passage was in June 1994. The spacecraft passed the solar equator in February 1995 and passed over the north pole in June 1995.