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Missions to Venus constitute part of the exploration of Venus. The Soviet Union, followed by the United States, have soft landed probes on the surface. Venera 7 was the first lander overall and first for the Soviet Union, touching down on 15 December 1970.
Nov 9, 2017 · NASA's Mariner 2 was the first spacecraft to visit any planet beyond Earth when it flew past Venus on Dec. 14, 1962.
- Venus Express. The European Space Agency's Venus Express studied the planet's ionosphere and atmosphere, enabling scientists to draw important conclusions about the surface.
- MESSENGER. NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft flew past Venus twice on its way to Mercury.
- Cassini-Huygens. NASA and the European Space Agency's Cassini-Huygens mission visited Venus twice during its long trek out to Saturn.
- Magellan. NASA's Magellan orbiter mapped over 98% of Venus at a resolution of 100 meters or better using its radar.
One of the most successful deep-space missions, Magellan was the first spacecraft to image the entire surface of Venus and made several discoveries about the planet. Even as it plunged into the Venusian atmosphere and burned up, it was still collecting data.
- United States of America (USA)
- Magellan
- Venus Orbit
- 7,595 pounds (3,445 kilograms)
- Mariner 2 — First Successful Venus Flyby
- Venera 4 — Atmosphere Probe
- Mariner 5 — Flyby
- Veneras 5 and 6 — Atmosphere Probes
- Venera 7 — First Successful Venus Landing
- Venera 8 — Venus Lander
- Mariner 10 — Flyby of Venus en Route to Mercury
- Veneras 9 and 10 — Venus Orbiters and Landers
- Pioneer Venus Orbiter and Multiprobe — Venus Orbiter and Probes
- Veneras 11 and 12 — Venus Flyby Buses and Landers
Mariner 2 was the first successful mission not only to Venus, but to any other planet. It made a flyby of Venus on Dec. 14, 1962. The NASA spacecraft recorded Venus' temperature for the first time, showing it has a surface temperature of roughly 900 degrees Fahrenheit (480 degrees Celsius). The spacecraft also detected the density, composition and ...
Venera 4 was a Soviet Union spacecraft that was the first to successfully transmit information from the atmosphere of Venus. It entered the atmosphere on Oct. 18, 1967 and was not designed to make it all the way to the ground. The spacecraft showed an atmospheric composition of roughly 90% to 95% carbon dioxide, and found no evidence of a global ma...
Mariner 5 was a NASA spacecraft that made its closest approach to Venus on Oct. 19, 1967. The spacecraft measured magnetic fields on Venus and in interplanetary space, and it examined charged particles, plasma (superheated gas), ultraviolet emissions and the amount by which radio waves are refracted in the atmosphere of Venus. This sort of informat...
The Soviet Union's Venera 5 and 6 spacecraft were identical twin machines that each did successful flybys of Venus in 1969. Venera 5 entered the atmosphere on May 16, 1969 and sent readouts of the temperature, pressure and atmosphere for 45 minutes until it succumbed. Venera 6 also did a suicide plunge into the atmosphere on May 17, 1969, but its p...
Venera 7 and a failed twin (Cosmos 359) both launched to Venus from the Soviet Union in August 1970. Venera 7 was the first spacecraft to successfully return data after landing on the surface of Venus. That said, the spacecraft had a rough landing on Dec. 15, 1970. The parachute ripped during descent and the probe hit Venus at a high speed (56 feet...
The Soviet Union's Venera 8 and another failed twin spacecraft, Cosmos 482, both launched for Venus in 1972. Venera 8 landed safely on July 22, 1972 and managed to last 63 minutes on the surface before the high pressures and temperatures killed the transmission. The probe's mission confirmed that Venus has high surface temperature and pressure, and...
Mariner 10was the first spacecraft to use the gravity of one planet (Venus) to slingshot to a second planet (Mercury). It also was the first spacecraft to visit two planets. The NASA probe zoomed by Venus once on Feb. 5, 1974 and sent back the first close-up images of the planet from orbit. The spacecraft overcame several technical issues during it...
The Soviet Union's Veneras 9 and 10 each sent successful orbiters and landers to Venus. Venera 9 made a successful landing on Oct. 22, 1975 while Venera 10 alighted on the surface a day later. Both spacecraft transmitted TV photography from the surface and the mission as a whole recorded information about the planet's surface pressure, surface temp...
This NASA mission is sometimes referred to as Pioneer Venus 1 and Pioneer Venus 2, and sometimes as Pioneer Venus Orbiterand Pioneer Venus Multiprobe. Whatever the naming convention, however, the orbital part of the mission successfully entered orbit at Venus on Dec. 4, 1978 and sent back information about the atmosphere and surface of Venus until ...
The Soviet Union's Venera 11 and 12 were twin spacecraft that flew to Venus in 1978. Each spacecraft included a flyby bus that would release a lander. Venera 12 touched down on the surface on Dec. 21, with Venera 11 following four days later. Each spacecraft survived for more than an hour after landing. As a whole, the mission gathered information ...
Nov 11, 2024 · The European Space Agency’s Venus Express, which was launched in 2005, entered into orbit around Venus the following year, becoming the first European spacecraft to visit the planet.
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The first successful flyby Venus probe was the American Mariner 2 spacecraft, which flew past Venus in 1962, coming within 35,000 km. A modified Ranger Moon probe, it established that Venus has practically no intrinsic magnetic field and measured the temperature of the planet's atmosphere to be approximately 500 °C (773 K ; 932 °F ).
