Venus
Space age

Humanity's first interplanetary spaceflight was achieved in 1961 with the robotic space probe Venera 1 of the Soviet Venera programme flying to Venus, but it lost contact en route.

The first successful interplanetary mission, also to Venus, was Mariner 2 of the United States' Mariner programme, passing on 14 December 1962 at 34,833 km (21,644 mi) above the surface of Venus and gathering data on the planet's atmosphere.

Additionally radar observations of Venus were first carried out in the 1960s, and provided the first measurements of the rotation period, which were close to the actual value.

Venera 3, launched in 1966, became humanity's first probe and lander to reach and impact another celestial body other than the Moon, but could not return data as it crashed into the surface of Venus. In 1967, Venera 4 was launched and successfully deployed science experiments in the Venusian atmosphere before impacting. Venera 4 showed the surface temperature was hotter than Mariner 2 had calculated, at almost 500 °C (932 °F), determined that the atmosphere was 95% carbon dioxide (CO), and discovered that Venus's atmosphere was considerably denser than Venera 4 ' s designers had anticipated.

In an early example of space cooperation the data of Venera 4 was joined with the 1967 Mariner 5 data, analysed by a combined Soviet–American science team in a series of colloquia over the following year.

On 15 December 1970, Venera 7 became the first spacecraft to soft land on another planet and the first to transmit data from there back to Earth.

In 1974, Mariner 10 swung by Venus to bend its path towards Mercury and took ultraviolet photographs of the clouds, revealing the extraordinarily high wind speeds in the Venusian atmosphere. This was the first interplanetary gravity assist ever used, a technique which would be used by later probes.

Radar observations in the 1970s revealed details of the Venusian surface for the first time. Pulses of radio waves were beamed at the planet using the 300 m (1,000 ft) radio telescope at Arecibo Observatory, and the echoes revealed two highly reflective regions, designated the Alpha and Beta regions. The observations revealed a bright region attributed to mountains, which was called Maxwell Montes. These three features are now the only ones on Venus that do not have female names.

In 1975, the Soviet Venera 9 and 10 landers transmitted the first images from the surface of Venus, which were in black and white. NASA obtained additional data with the Pioneer Venus project, consisting of two separate missions: the Pioneer Venus Multiprobe and Pioneer Venus Orbiter, orbiting Venus between 1978 and 1992. In 1982 the first colour images of the surface were obtained with the Soviet Venera 13 and 14 landers. After Venera 15 and 16 operated between 1983 and 1984 in orbit, conducting detailed mapping of 25% of Venus's terrain (from the north pole to 30°N latitude), the Soviet Venera programme came to a close.

In 1985 the Soviet Vega programme with its Vega 1 and Vega 2 missions carried the last entry probes and carried the first ever extraterrestrial aerobots for the first time achieving atmospheric flight outside Earth by employing inflatable balloons.

Between 1990 and 1994, Magellan operated in orbit until deorbiting, mapping the surface of Venus. Furthermore, probes like Galileo (1990), Cassini–Huygens (1998/1999), and MESSENGER (2006/2007) visited Venus with flybys en route to other destinations.In April 2006, Venus Express, the first dedicated Venus mission by the European Space Agency (ESA), entered orbit around Venus. Venus Express provided unprecedented observation of Venus's atmosphere. ESA concluded the Venus Express mission in December 2014 deorbiting it in January 2015.

In 2010, the first successful interplanetary solar sail spacecraft IKAROS travelled to Venus for a flyby.
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