While nasa set their sights on the moon and outer planets, the soviets spent some 30 years investigating the hellish inner planet venus. Explore the extraordinary surface of venus through rare photos captured by venera 13 in 1982—the only glimpse humanity has of this mysterious planet. Venera, any of a series of unmanned soviet planetary probes that were sent to venus Radio contact was lost with the first probe, venera 1 (launched feb 12, 1961), before it flew by venus. The venera series of satellites were launched by the soviet union to study venus and its environment
Ten probes successfully landed on venus and transmitted data from the surface. The venera program achieved several major milestones in space exploration It was the first program to successfully land spacecraft on the surface of venus and transmit data back to earth. From 1961 to 1984 the soviet union carried out a program of exploration of venus using venera spacecraft In 1967 venera 4 entered the atmosphere and obtained direct measures of temperature and pressure (avduevskii, v.s., et al.). Launched by the soviet union, the venera program was a bold leap in space exploration
