The Complete Book of Spaceflight: From Apollo 1 to Zero Gravity

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as data relays for more than an hour and a half until
they traveled out of range to continue their investigations
of interplanetary space. The Venera-12 flyby bus
successfully used its Soviet-French ultraviolet spectrometer
to observe Comet Bradfield in February
1980. Both Venera 11 and 12 landers failed to return
color TV views of the surface and to perform soil
analysis experiments as planned. All of the camera
protective covers failed to eject after landing, and the
soil drilling experiments were damaged by exposure to
the high Venusian atmospheric pressure. Results
reported included evidence of lightning and thunder,
and the discovery of carbon monoxide at low altitudes.
Venera 13 and 14
Identical orbiter/landers launched within the same
week. The landing probes touched down 950 km apart
to the northeast and east, respectively, of an elevated
basaltic plain known as Phoebe Regio. Venera 13
Venera Missions
became the first spacecraft to remotely analyze the
Venusian surface. Its mechanical drilling arm obtained
a sample, which was deposited in a hermetically
sealed chamber and maintained at 30°C and a pressure
of about .05 atmospheres. The makeup of the
sample, as determined by the X-ray fluorescence spectrometer,
appeared similar to that of oceanic basalts
on Earth. Venera 14’s attempt at surface analysis was
foiled when, ironically, its drilling arm landed on a
successfully ejected camera cover.
Venera 15 and 16
A two-spacecraft mission that used side-looking radar
mappers to study the surface properties of Venus. The
two probes entered nearly polar orbits around Venus a
day apart with their orbital planes inclined about 4°
apart. This made it possible to reimage an area if necessary.
Over their eight months of operation, the
spacecraft mapped the area from the north pole down
to about 30° N latitude.
Launch site: Baikonur
Launch
Spacecraft Date Vehicle Arrival Date Closest Approach (km) Mass (kg)
Venera 1 Feb. 12, 1961 Molniya May 19, 1961 100,000 644
Venera 2 Nov. 12, 1965 Molniya-M Feb. 27, 1966 24,000 962
Venera 3 Nov. 16, 1965 " Mar. 1, 1966 Landed 958
Venera 4 Jun. 12, 1967 " Oct. 18, 1967 Landed 1,104
Venera 5 Jan. 5, 1969 " May 16, 1969 Landed 1,128
Venera 6 Jan. 10, 1969 " May 17, 1969 Landed 1,128
Venera 7 Aug. 17, 1970 " Dec. 15, 1970 Landed 1,180
Venera 8 Mar. 27, 1972 " Jul. 22, 1972 Landed 1,180
Venera 9 Jun. 8, 1975 Proton Oct. 21, 1975 Landed 4,936
Venera 10 Jun. 14, 1975 " Oct. 25, 1975 Landed 5,033
Venera 11 Sep. 9, 1978 " Dec. 21, 1978 Landed 4,715
Venera 12 Sep. 14, 1978 " Dec. 25, 1978 Landed 4,715
Venera 13 Oct. 30, 1981 " Mar. 1, 1982 Landed 4,500
Venera 14 Nov. 4, 1981 " Mar. 5, 1982 Landed 4,000
Venera 15 Jun. 2, 1983 " Oct. 10, 1983 Orbited 4,000
Venera 16 Jun. 7, 1983 " Oct. 14, 1983 Orbited 4,000