Some verification of the bit flip issue:

http://files.seds.org/pub/spacecraft/MAGELLAN/ms12.12.89

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?arnumber=8...

I found nothing that mentions perl, but Larry Wall worked at NASA in those days: http://www.megalextoria.com/usenet-archive/news112f1/b135/co...

Yes, Larry worked at JPL, which managed the Magellan mission to Venus.