Chronology of the missions to Venus
This list shows in chronological order all space probes that were launched with the aim of reaching the planet Venus . The space probes which did not reach their destination due to malfunctions or other reasons are also mentioned; Probes with pure false starts are in brackets. Some missions to Venus launched and failed by the Soviet Union were designated as satellites (in the case of reaching Earth orbit) and given Sputnik - or Kosmos - cover names. The probes that did not even reach Earth orbit were given no official designation at all. They therefore have names such as: B. Zond 1964A.
chronology
The degree of success is marked in the following colors:
failure | Partial success | Successfully | constantly |
Contents: 1960 · 1970 · 1980 · 1990 · 2000 · Planned | |||||||||||
No. | Mission (or false start) | image | Start date ( UTC ) | Organization (country) | Results | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1960s - 61 - 62 - 64 - 65 - 67 - 69 | |||||||||||
1. | (Sputnik 7) | 4th February 1961 | Soviet Union | Planned hard serve on Venus. Only reached orbit due to failure of the fourth stage of the Molnija launcher | |||||||
2. | Venera 1 | February 12, 1961 | Soviet Union | Planned hard serve on Venus. Contact broke off after just seven days on February 19 at a distance of around two million kilometers from Earth. On May 20, 1961, the probe passed Venus 100,000 km away | |||||||
3. | (Mariner 1) | July 22, 1962 | NASA ( USA ) | Planned flyby of Venus. Failed to reach Earth orbit due to failure of the Atlas-Agena launcher | |||||||
4th | (Sputnik 19) | August 25, 1962 | Soviet Union | Planned landing. Only reached orbit due to failure of the fourth stage of the Molnija launcher | |||||||
5. | Mariner 2 | August 27, 1962 | NASA (USA) | Flew past Venus at a distance of 34,000 km on December 14, 1962. Delivered first measurement data from Venus, which u. a. showed that Venus is not a planet with a warm and humid climate | |||||||
6th | (Sputnik 20) | September 1, 1962 | Soviet Union | Planned landing. Only reached orbit due to failure of the fourth stage of the Molnija launcher | |||||||
7th | (Sputnik 21) | September 12, 1962 | Soviet Union | Planned flyby. Only reached orbit due to failure of the fourth stage of the Molnija launcher | |||||||
8th. | (Zond 1964A) | 19th February 1964 | Soviet Union | Planned engineering test of the space probe, no flight towards Venus. Failed to reach Earth orbit due to failure of the Molnija launcher | |||||||
9. | (Cosmos 27) | March 27, 1964 | Soviet Union | Planned landing. Only reached orbit due to failure of the fourth stage of the Molnija launcher | |||||||
10. | Zone 1 | April 2, 1964 | Soviet Union | Planned landing on Venus. The radio contact with the probe broke off already on 14 May 1964th On July 14, 1964, the probe passed Venus 100,000 km away | |||||||
11. | Venera 2 | November 12, 1965 | Soviet Union | Planned flyby. Contact with the probe broke off shortly before the flyby . On February 27, 1966, the probe passed Venus at a distance of 15,000 miles | |||||||
12. | Venera 3 | November 16, 1965 | Soviet Union | Planned landing. Contact with the probe broke off before landing. However, the lander hit the surface of Venus on March 1, 1966 and likely hit hard | |||||||
13. | (Cosmos 96) | November 23, 1965 | Soviet Union | Planned landing. Only reached orbit due to failure of the fourth stage of the Molnija launcher | |||||||
14th | Venera 4 | June 12, 1967 | Soviet Union | Successful lander, entered the Venusian atmosphere on October 18, 1967. Lander transmitted data on the atmosphere for 96 minutes at an altitude of 15.96 miles, but failed to reach the ground intact | |||||||
15th | Mariner 5 | June 14, 1967 | NASA (USA) | Successful flyby on October 19, 1967 at a distance of 3,990 km. | |||||||
16. | (Cosmos 167) | June 17, 1967 | Soviet Union | Planned lander. Only reached orbit due to failure of the fourth stage of the Molnija launcher | |||||||
17th | Venera 5 | 5th January 1969 | Soviet Union | Successful lander, plunged into Venusian atmosphere on May 16, 1969. Lander transmitted data on the atmosphere for 53 minutes but no longer reached the ground intact | |||||||
18th | Venera 6 | January 10, 1969 | Soviet Union | Successful lander, plunged into Venusian atmosphere on May 17, 1969. Lander transmitted data on the atmosphere for 51 minutes but no longer reached the ground intact | |||||||
1970s - 70 - 72 - 73 - 75 - 78 | |||||||||||
19th | Venera 7 | 17th August 1970 | Soviet Union | Successful lander, entered the atmosphere of Venus on December 15, 1970. Lander transmitted data on the atmosphere for 35 minutes, after landing data was transmitted from the surface for 23 minutes | |||||||
20th | (Cosmos 359) | 22nd August 1970 | Soviet Union | Planned lander. Only reached orbit due to failure of the fourth stage of the Molnija launcher | |||||||
21st | Venera 8 | March 27, 1972 | Soviet Union | Successful lander, plunged into Venus' atmosphere on July 22, 1972 and landed intact on the surface a little later. Lander transmitted data for 50 minutes, but only 11 seconds of data was sent from the surface. | |||||||
22nd | (Cosmos 482) | March 31, 1972 | Soviet Union | Planned lander. Only reached orbit due to failure of the fourth stage of the Molnija launcher | |||||||
23. | Mariner 10 | 4th November 1973 | NASA (USA) | Mercury probe, flyby of Venus on February 5, 1974 at a distance of 5,800 km. Provided about 4,000 images of Venus | |||||||
24. | Venera 9 | June 8th 1975 | Soviet Union | Successful orbiters and lander, Lander landed on October 20, 1975 transmitting data for 53 minutes and, for the first time, some images of the surface to Earth | |||||||
25th | Venera 10 | June 14, 1975 | Soviet Union | Successful orbiters and lander, Lander landed on October 25, 1975, transmitting surface data and images to Earth for 63 minutes | |||||||
26th | Pioneer Venus 1st | May 20, 1978 | NASA (USA) | Successful Venus orbiter, entry into Venus orbit on December 4, 1978. Operational until May 1992 | |||||||
27. | Pioneer Venus 2 | August 8, 1978 | NASA (USA) | Successful atmospheric probes, entry into the Venusian atmosphere on December 9, 1978. The probes transmitted data about the atmosphere during the descent, and one of the four probes unexpectedly survived the landing and provided data from the surface for 67 minutes | |||||||
28. | Venera 11 | September 9, 1978 | Soviet Union | Successful flyby and lander; this landed on December 25, 1978 and transmitted data from the surface of Venus for 95 minutes (no camera on board) | |||||||
29 | Venera 12 | September 14, 1978 | Soviet Union | Successful flyby and lander, lander landed on December 21, 1978 transmitting data from the surface of Venus for 110 minutes (no camera on board) | |||||||
1980s - 81 - 83 - 84 - 89 | |||||||||||
30th | Venera 13 | October 30, 1981 | Soviet Union | Successful flyby and lander, Lander landed on March 1, 1982, transmitting data from Venus' surface for 107 minutes | |||||||
31. | Venera 14 | 4th November 1981 | Soviet Union | Successful flyby and lander, Lander landed on March 3, 1982, transmitting data from Venus' surface for 57 minutes | |||||||
32. | Venera 15 | June 2nd 1983 | Soviet Union | Successful orbiter, reached Venus' orbit on October 10, 1983, and operated well into 1984. Together with Venera 16, mapped about 30% of the surface of Venus with a radar | |||||||
33. | Venera 16 | June 7, 1983 | Soviet Union | Successful orbiter, reached Venus' orbit on October 14, 1983 and operated until July 12, 1984. Together with Venera 15, mapped about 30% of the surface of Venus with a radar | |||||||
34. | Vega 1 | 15th December 1984 | Soviet Union | Flyby, lander and balloon to explore the atmosphere. Landing on June 11, 1985, Lander transmitted data from the surface for 56 minutes. Balloon active for 46.5 hours in the atmosphere. Flyby stage continued to Halley's Comet . | |||||||
35. | Vega 2 | December 21, 1984 | Soviet Union | Flyby, lander and balloon to explore the atmosphere. Landing on June 14, 1985, Lander transmitted data from the surface for 57 minutes. Balloon active for 60 hours in the atmosphere. Flyby stage continued to Halley's Comet. | |||||||
36. | Magellan | May 4th 1989 | NASA (USA) | Successful orbiter, reached Venus orbit on August 10, 1990, mapped 98% of Venus' surface with a radar. Burned up on October 12, 1994 in the atmosphere of Venus. | |||||||
37. | Galileo | October 18, 1989 | NASA (USA) | Jupiter probe, a Venus flyby on February 10, 1990 at a distance of 16,000 km, provided 81 images of Venus | |||||||
2000s - 04 - 05 - 10 | |||||||||||
39. | Messenger | August 3, 2004 | NASA (USA) | Mercury orbiter, two Venus flybys: first on October 24, 2006, second on June 5, 2007 | |||||||
40. | Venus Express | November 9, 2005 | ESA (Europe) | Venus orbiter, reached Venus orbit on April 11, 2006 and provided data through the end of 2014. Then the probe burned up in the Venusian atmosphere. | |||||||
41. | Akatsuki | May 20, 2010 | JAXA ( Japan ) | Venus orbiter failed to enter orbit on December 8, 2010. A second attempt on December 6, 2015 was successful. | |||||||
Planned - 2023 - 26 | |||||||||||
Shukrayaan-1 | 2023 | ISRO ( India ) | Venus orbiter; Investigation of the atmosphere, ionosphere , surface geology, magnetic field and interplanetary dust | ||||||||
Venera-D | 2026-2031 | Roscosmos ( Russia ) | Venus orbiter and lander |
Summary
From 1961 to the end of 2010, 36 space probes were launched whose main task was the exploration of Venus: 28 Soviet, six American, one European and one Japanese. Of the missions completed, 20 were successful (15 Soviet and five American); In addition, the European space probe has reached Venus and explored it for eight years. The Japanese probe failed first, but reached a higher than originally planned Venus orbit in December 2015. In addition, two American space probes have so far flown past Venus, whose primary target was another planet, but which also provided images of Venus (Galileo and Messenger.)
Some of the probes launched in the 1960s did not even reach Earth orbit, but this was due to the lack of reliability of the launch vehicles at the time. The success of the Soviet Venus probes was also much better than that of the Mars probes (since 1975 all Soviet Venus missions have been a success), which is partly due to easier landing conditions in the dense atmosphere of Venus.
See also
Web links
- Chronology of the Venus missions
- Chronology of Venus Exploration (English)
- Soviet Venus sample launches (English)
- NASA Venus Exploration Analysis Group (VEXAG) (English)
- Nature article on past and future missions to Venus (June 2019)
Individual evidence
- ^ Scientific Assembly Abstracts. (PDF) COSPAIR, July 2018, accessed on April 27, 2019 (page 432).
- ↑ Plans for future Space Physics missions - ISRO. (PDF) ISRO, July 15, 2016, accessed on April 27, 2019 .
- ^ Status Report of the Venera-D Joint Science Definition Team. (PDF) December 2017, accessed April 27, 2019 .