PEGASUS

Bellerophon with his horse Pegasus, stone bas-relief; in the Palazzo Spada, Rome in Greek mythology, a winged horse that sprang from the blood of the Gorgon Medusa as she was beheaded by the hero Perseus. With Athena's (or Poseidon's) help, another Greek hero, Bellerophon (see photograph), captured Pegasus and rode him first in his fight with the Chimera and later while he was taking vengeance on Stheneboea (Anteia), who had falsely accused Bellerophon. Subsequently Bellerophon attempted to fly with Pegasus to heaven but was unseated and killed or, by some accounts, lamed. The winged horse became a constellation and the servant of Zeus. Pegasus' story was a favourite theme in Greek art and literature, and in late antiquity Pegasus' soaring flight was interpreted as an allegory of the soul's immortality; in modern times it has been regarded as a symbol of poetic inspiration. any of a series of three U.S. scientific satellites launched in 1965. These spacecraft were named for the winged horse in Greek mythology because of their prominent wing-like structure. This wing, which spanned 96 feet (29 metres), was specially designed to record the depth and frequency with which it was pierced by micrometeoroids. The information was used to design the outer shell of the manned Apollo spacecraft to prevent penetration of such high-speed particles of space dust. The data also enabled engineers to develop space suits that would shield astronauts from micrometeoroids when working outside their craft. The Pegasus ranks among the largest U.S. spacecraft ever built, with its center section extending 71 ft (21.6 m) in length.