SPACE — On December 24, 1978, Venera 11 landed on Venus. Venera 11 was a robotic mission launched by the Soviet Union to explore Venus with its sister spacecraft Venera 12.
Venera 11 was launched in September 1978 just five days before Venera 12. Three and a half months later, the spacecraft arrived at Venus and was dropped from the lander.
The descent took about an hour, and the Venera 11 made a soft landing on the surface around 10:30 p.m. EST. The Venera spacecraft has instruments designed to study Venus’ atmosphere and how hot the planet is, as well as the chemical composition of its soil.
Venera even carries a tool called Groza that detects lightning on Venus. Despite having a camera on board, the lander did not take photos of Venus because the lens cover failed to remove. Source: Space.com
2023-12-24 15:06:00
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