A RUSSIAN SPECTACULAR
The Soviet Union has launched 14 Venera spacecraft toward Venus since 1967, with 12 of them descending through the atmosphere to the surface. Venera 7 in 1970 and Venera 8 in 1972 made the first successful, although shortlived, landings. Venera 9 and 10 in October, 1975, landed on the daylight side and transmitted back to earth the first pictures of Venus's surface before succumbing after about 1 hour to the high temperature and pressure of that hostile environment. Venera 11 and 12 landed in late December, 1978, surviving about 100 minutes with apparently no pictures transmitted. On March 1 and 5, 1982, Venera 13 and 14 landed and took four pictures before breaking down after a couple of hours under the hellish conditions of the surface.
The United States has launched three Venus fly bys:
Mariner 2 in 1964, Mariner 5 in 1967, and Mariner 10 in 1973. Our most ambitious effort was the two Pioneer Venus craft launched on May 20, 1978, and August 8, 1978. The first member of the Pioneer Venus fleet was an orbiter, shown in Figure 6.13, which went into orbit around the planet. The rest of the fleet, which consisted of one large and three small probes and the mother ship that carried the probes, went immediately to the surface to widely separated landing points. Although none of the probes was designed to survive on the surface after impact, one small probe survived 1 hour and 8 minutes.
