Venera 2
Venera 2 — a Soviet Venus flyby probe carrying a camera (launched 12 November 1965). Its radiators could not shed enough heat, the craft overheated, and its communications failed before it arrived. It passed 23,950 km from Venus on 27 February 1966 and returned no data from the encounter.
Key facts
Mission & specifications
Mission
- Operator
- OKB-1 / Lavochkin (USSR)
- Launched
- November 12, 1965
- Status
- Lost
Trajectory
- Distance from the Sun
- 0.726 AU
- Computed from the cached position
- Distance from Earth
- 0.366 AU
- Computed from cached positions
- Distance from Venus
- 0.171 AU
- Computed from cached positions
Mission
Venera 2 was built to photograph Venus as it flew past. Launched on 12 November 1965, four days before its twin Venera 3, it was a 963 kg craft of a type originally designed for Mars, carrying a camera system and spectrometers in a sphere at one end, along with detectors for particles, micrometeoroids and magnetic fields. Communications during the cruise were poor and sporadic. The craft was overheating: the radiator elements meant to carry its heat away did not work properly. Its communication system stopped working on 10 February 1966, before it reached Venus. On 27 February it passed 23,950 km from the planet and entered orbit around the Sun, having returned no data from the encounter. Attempts to contact it ended on 4 March.
- 1965Launch toward VenusLaunch
A flyby probe carrying a camera sets out, four days ahead of its twin, Venera 3.
- 1966Communications stopMission end
The overheating craft's communication system stops working before it arrives.
It flies past and into orbit around the Sun, returning no data from the encounter.
Images
No openly licensed photograph of Venera 2 or of a model of it has been found. It returned no pictures: its communications failed before it reached Venus.