Venera

Venera was a series of Soviet spacecraft launched between 1961 and 1984 to study Venus, our neighboring planet. Designed with advanced instruments for the time, these missions aimed to understand Venus’s atmosphere, surface, and environment. The Venera probes provided valuable data, including the first images of Venus's surface and insights into its extreme temperatures and pressure. They significantly advanced our knowledge of Venus, revealing a hostile, volcanic planet with thick, toxic clouds. The Venera program was key in planetary exploration, demonstrating the challenges of operating in other worlds and paving the way for future space missions.