What was Venera?
The Venera were a series of Soviet space probes launched between 1963 and 1981. Their target was Venus. Among the Venera were the first probe to crash-land on another planet (Venera 4 in October 1967), to make a soft landing on another planet (Venera 7 on 15 December 1970), to take images of the surface of another planet (Venera 9 on 8 June 1975) and to perform high-resolution radar mapping of Venus (Venera 15 on 2 June 1983). These accomplishments make the Venera among the most successful probe series ever. Venus is extremely hot at 830 °F (433 °C) and pressurized, at 93 atmospheres. This is similar to the pressure under a kilometer of water here on Earth. Because of Venus’ extreme conditions, and battery limitations, the probes which reached the surface did not operate for long — generally between 30 and 50 minutes. The Venera were heavy-duty probes, weighing between 1 and 3 tons, and about the size of small cars. Venera 1 and 2 were both failures — the first never even left Earth or
