Forty-five years ago today (Aug. 17), the then-Soviet Union launched Venera 7, the first probe ever to send data from the surface of Venus.

Venera 7, however, successfully reached its target planet four months later, thanks to a couple of course corrections along the way.

Venera 8 repeated much of the Venera 7 mission, albeit without its lander falling over when it reached the surface of Venus on July 22, 1972.

Kosmos 482 was built as a sister probe to Venera 8, which launched in July 1972 to become the second craft (following Venera 7) to land on Venus. Once there, Venera 8 beamed data from Venus for ...

Thanks to audacious Russian space missions like Venera 13, we have photos from the volcanic face of our neighboring planet.

Venera — the ambient experimental project helmed by Korn guitarist James “Munky” Shaffer and composer/filmmaker Chris Hunt — have announced they’ve got a second album on the way. The duo’s sophomore ...

Kosmos 482 was built as a sister probe to Venera 8, which launched in July 1972 to become the second craft (following Venera 7) to land on Venus's scorching surface.

Venera 7 The Venera 7 probe. Photo: NASA Venera 7 has been lying on the Venusian surface for over 50 years, so there might not be much left of the Soviet probe—the first to reach the surface of ...

A mockup of the Venera 7 lander, similar to the object that fell to Earth. The Soviet's Venera 7 made it to Venus in 1970. ESA If you’ve been spending much of the last 24 hours inside a secure ...

The Venera 4 mission sent a probe into Venus' atmosphere, but played loose with whether or not it actually survived a landing.

In 1970, Venus was the first planet reached by a space probe — the Soviet probe Venera 7. Within an hour of its arrival, Venera 7 was destroyed by Venus' extremely high temperatures and acidic ...

(via SciShow Space) Venus may have been named after the Roman goddess of beauty, but once humans started sending spacecraft to the planet next door, we quickly learned that beauty… hurts.