QUESTION:
Is the spacecraft really all covered with gold?

ANSWER from FAQ on June 3, 1999:
It's really covered with gold-colored material, but it's not really
gold. It's a multilayer fabric sewn onto the spacecraft for thermal
control and for protective insulation against micrometeroid impacts. It
looks gold because the top layer is a translucent amber material called
Kapton and the next layer beneath is shiny aluminum fabric. Together,
they look like shiny gold cloth.