NATION : Venus Probe Magellan on Course

The Venus-bound Magellan space probe sailed on without a hitch today while the crew of the space shuttle Atlantis dealt with the more mundane matter of a balky fax machine.

Magellan, the nation’s first planetary mission in 11 years and the first ever launched from a shuttle, was more than 100,000 miles from Earth and speeding along at 9,600 m.p.h., Flight Director Bill Reeves said in a press briefing.

The shuttle crew spent part of the day trying unsuccessfully to solve a nagging problem with the text and graphics system--a space fax machine--that was plagued by paper jams. NASA said the machine will probably be shut down for the rest of the mission.