Venera 7

Key facts

Mission & specifications

Mission

Venera 7 achieved the first soft landing on another planet, and returned the first data ever transmitted from the surface of another world. Reaching the ground on Venus was a brutal challenge: earlier Soviet probes had been crushed or cooked during their descent through an atmosphere far denser and hotter than anyone had expected. Venera 7, launched on 17 August 1970, was built as a pressure vessel that could withstand it, chilled before arrival to buy time. On 15 December 1970 it plunged into the Venusian atmosphere and parachuted down, though its parachute appears to have torn and the lander struck the surface hard, tipping over. At first controllers thought the mission had failed at touchdown — but when the recorded signal was reanalysed, engineers found a faint transmission continuing for about 23 minutes from the surface itself. It confirmed the almost unbelievable conditions: a temperature near 475 °C, hot enough to melt lead, and a pressure about ninety times that at Earth's sea level. Venera 7 proved that a spacecraft could reach and briefly survive the surface of Venus, and it set the stage for the more capable landers — Venera 9 through 14 — that would soon send back pictures.

1. 1970Launch toward VenusLaunch

   A reinforced pressure-vessel lander sets out to survive the Venusian surface.

2. 1970Atmospheric entryArrival

   The probe enters Venus's dense atmosphere and parachutes toward the surface.

3. 1970Hard landing on VenusLanding

   Reaches the surface — the first soft landing on another planet — though it tips over on impact.

4. 1970First signal from another world's surfaceMilestone

   A faint transmission recovered from tape confirms ~475 °C and ~90 atmospheres over about 23 minutes.

Images

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