List of missions to Venus

There have been 46 space missions to the planet Venus (including gravity-assist flybys). Missions to Venus constitute part of the exploration of Venus. The Soviet Union, followed by the United States, have soft landed probes on the surface. Venera 7 was the first lander overall and first for the Soviet Union, touching down on 15 December 1970. Pioneer Venus 2 contained the first spacecraft to land from the United States, the Day Probe. It soft landed on 9 December 1978.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]} The most recent lander was part of the Vega 2 mission, which soft landed on 15 June 1985.

Launches to Venus

Decade
1960s	18
1970s	11
1980s	8
1990s	1
2000s	2
2010s	5
2020s	1

Global topographic map of Venus, with all probe landings marked (red: returned images; with additional black dot: analyzed samples).

List

As of 2020, the Soviet Union, United States, European Space Agency and Japan have conducted missions to Venus.

Mission Type Legend

  Mission to Venus

  Gravity assist, destination elsewhere

Spacecraft	Launch date[7]	Operator	Mission	Outcome	Remarks	Carrier rocket[8]
Tyazhely Sputnik (1VA No.1)	4 February 1961	OKB-1  Soviet Union	Impactor[9]	Launch failure	Power transformer failure, upper stage failed to ignite, never left LEO[9]	Molniya
Venera 1 (1VA No.2)	12 February 1961	OKB-1  Soviet Union	Impactor[9]	Spacecraft failure	Communications failure. First flyby past another planet, on 19 May 1961 at less than 100,000 kilometres (62,000 mi); no data returned	Molniya
Mariner 1 (P-37)	22 July 1962	NASA  United States	Flyby	Launch failure	Failed to orbit Earth; destroyed by range safety following guidance failure[10]	Atlas-LV3 Agena-B
2MV-1 No.1	25 August 1962	OKB-1  Soviet Union	Lander	Launch failure	Premature upper stage cutoff due to ullage motor malfunction; never left LEO[10]	Molniya
Mariner 2 (P-38)	27 August 1962	NASA  United States	Flyby	Successful	First successful flyby past another planet on 14 December 1962	Atlas-LV3 Agena-B
2MV-1 No.2	1 September 1962	OKB-1  Soviet Union	Lander	Launch failure	Upper stage fuel valve failed to open, resulting in failure to ignite; never left LEO[10]	Molniya
2MV-2 No.1	12 September 1962	OKB-1  Soviet Union	Flyby	Launch failure	Anomalous third stage cutoff resulted in air bubbles forming in fourth stage fuel; fourth stage shut down less than a second after ignition; failed to leave LEO[10]	Molniya
3MV-1 No.2	19 February 1964	OKB-1  Soviet Union	Flyby	Launch failure	Third stage oxidizer leak caused propellant to freeze in feed lines, which subsequently cracked; failed to orbit[11]	Molniya-M
Kosmos 27 (3MV-1 No.3)	27 March 1964	OKB-1  Soviet Union	Flyby/Lander	Launch failure	Upper stage attitude control failure, never left LEO[11]	Molniya-M
Zond 1 (3MV-1 No.4)	2 April 1964	OKB-1  Soviet Union	Flyby/Lander	Spacecraft failure	Electronics shorted out, communications lost before flyby.[11] Flew past Venus on 14 July 1964.	Molniya-M
Venera 2 (3MV-4 No.4)	12 November 1965	OKB-1  Soviet Union	Flyby	Spacecraft failure	Flew past Venus on 27 February 1966, closest approach at 02:52 UTC. Communications lost after flyby, before any data could be returned.[12]	Molniya-M
Venera 3 (3MV-3 No.1)	16 November 1965	OKB-1  Soviet Union	Lander	Spacecraft failure	Communications lost as soon as spacecraft entered atmosphere on 1 March 1966, no data returned. First atmospheric entry and impact on another planet.	Molniya-M
Kosmos 96 (3MV-4 No.6)	23 November 1965	OKB-1  Soviet Union	Flyby	Launch failure	Third stage combustion chamber exploded, resulting in loss of control, upper stage failed to ignite; Never left LEO[12]	Molniya-M
Venera 4 (4V-1 No.310)	12 June 1967	Lavochkin  Soviet Union	Atmospheric	Successful	Returned atmospheric data during entry on 18 October 1967. First successful atmospheric entry. Never intended to work on surface[13]	Molniya-M
Mariner 5	14 June 1967	NASA  United States	Flyby	Successful	Flyby on 19 October 1967, closest approach at 17:34:56 UTC[14]	Atlas SLV-3 Agena-D
Kosmos 167 (4V-1 No.311)	17 June 1967	Lavochkin  Soviet Union	Lander	Launch failure	Upper stage failed to ignite; turbopump cooling malfunction. Never left LEO[14]	Molniya-M
Venera 5 (4V-1 No.330)	5 January 1969	Lavochkin  Soviet Union	Atmospheric	Successful	Entered atmosphere on 16 May 1969, operated for 53 minutes	Molniya-M
Venera 6 (4V-1 No.331)	10 January 1969	Lavochkin  Soviet Union	Atmospheric	Successful	Entered atmosphere on 17 May 1969, operated for 51 minutes	Molniya-M
Venera 7 (4V-1 No.630)	17 August 1970	Lavochkin  Soviet Union	Lander	Partial success	Landed at 05:37:10 UTC on 15 December 1970, rolled upon landing and returned severely limited data. First soft landing on another planet.	Molniya-M
Kosmos 359 (4V-1 No.631)	22 August 1970	Lavochkin  Soviet Union	Lander	Launch failure	Never left LEO	Molniya-M
Venera 8 (4V-1 No.670)	27 March 1972	Lavochkin  Soviet Union	Lander	Successful	Landed at 09:32 UTC on 22 July 1972. First fully successful landing on another planet.	Molniya-M
Kosmos 482 (4V-1 No.671)	31 March 1972	Lavochkin  Soviet Union	Lander	Launch failure	Never left LEO	Molniya-M
Mariner 10	3 November 1973	NASA  United States	Flyby	Successful	Flyby on 5 February 1974; closest approach at 17:01 UTC; observed Venus and performed gravity assist to reach Mercury	Atlas SLV-3D Centaur-D1A
Venera 9 (4V-1 No.660)	8 June 1975	Lavochkin  Soviet Union	Orbiter/Lander	Successful	Entered orbit on 20 October 1975; lander landed at 05:13 UTC on 22 October. First orbiter of Venus and first images from the surface of another planet.	Proton-K/D
Venera 10 (4V-1 No.661)	14 June 1975	Lavochkin  Soviet Union	Orbiter/Lander	Successful	Entered orbit on 23 October 1975; lander landed at 05:17 UTC on 25 October	Proton-K/D
Venera 11 (4V-1 No.360)	9 September 1978	Lavochkin  Soviet Union	Flyby/Lander	Mostly successful	Flyby on 25 December; Lander landed at 03:24 UTC the same day. Multiple instrument failures on lander	Proton-K/D-1
Venera 12 (4V-1 No.361)	14 September 1978	Lavochkin  Soviet Union	Flyby/Lander	Mostly successful	Lander landed at 03:20 UTC on 21 December 1978. Both cameras on lander failed	Proton-K/D-1
Pioneer Venus 1 (PV Orbiter)	20 May 1978	NASA  United States	Orbiter	Successful	Entered orbit on 4 December 1978, decayed on 22 October 1992	Atlas SLV-3D Centaur-D1AR
Pioneer Venus 2 (PV Multiprobe)	8 August 1978	NASA  United States	Atmospheric	Successful	Entered the atmosphere on 9 December 1978; consisted of five spacecraft, two of which continued transmitting after reaching the surface[4][1][2][3][5][6]	Atlas SLV-3D Centaur-D1AR
Venera 13 (4V-1M No.760)	30 October 1981	Lavochkin  Soviet Union	Flyby/Lander	Successful	Lander landed at 03:20 UTC on 1 March 1982. First recording of sounds from another planet.	Proton-K/D-1
Venera 14 (4V-1M No.761)	4 November 1981	Lavochkin  Soviet Union	Flyby/Lander	Successful	Lander landed on 5 March 1982.	Proton-K/D-1
Venera 15 (4V-2 No.860)	2 June 1983	Lavochkin  Soviet Union	Orbiter	Successful	Entered orbit 10 October 1983, operated until July 1984	Proton-K/D-1
Venera 16 (4V-2 No.861)	7 June 1983	Lavochkin  Soviet Union	Orbiter	Successful	Entered orbit 11 October 1983, operated until July 1984	Proton-K/D-1
Vega 1 (5VK No.901)	15 December 1984	Lavochkin  Soviet Union	Flyby/Atmospheric/Lander	Mostly successful	Landed 11 June 1985. Atmospheric probe deployed during entry operated for two days. Main bus continued to explore comet 1P/Halley	Proton-K/D-1
Vega 2 (5VK No.902)	21 December 1984	Lavochkin  Soviet Union	Flyby/Atmospheric/Lander	Successful	Landed 15 June 1985. Atmospheric probe deployed during entry operated for two days. Main bus continued to explore comet 1P/Halley	Proton-K/D-1
Magellan	4 May 1989	NASA  United States	Orbiter	Successful	Entered orbit 10 October 1990, deorbited 13 October 1994	Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-30 / IUS
Galileo	18 October 1989	NASA  United States	Gravity assist at Venus	Successful	Flyby on 10 February 1990 en route to Jupiter; observed Venus during closest pass.	Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-34 / IUS
Cassini	15 October 1997	NASA  United States	Gravity assist	Successful	Flybys on 26 April 1998 and 24 June 1999 en route to Saturn; observed Venus during closest pass.	Titan IV(401)B
MESSENGER	3 August 2004	NASA  United States	Gravity assist	Successful	Flybys on 24 October 2006 and 5 June 2007 en route to Mercury; observed Venus during closest pass.	Delta II 7925H
Venus Express	9 November 2005	ESA	Orbiter	Successful	Entered orbit 11 April 2006. Full communications lost on 28 November 2014 [15]	Soyuz-FG/Fregat
Akatsuki	20 May 2010	JAXA  Japan	Orbiter	Mostly successful	Flew past Venus on 6 December 2010 after failing to enter orbit. Insertion was successfully reattempted on 7 December 2015. Last contact April 2024	H-IIA 202
IKAROS	20 May 2010	JAXA  Japan	Flyby	Successful	Experimental solar sail released from the Akatsuki spacecraft. Flew past Venus on 8 December 2010 but did not make observations.	H-IIA 202
Shin'en	20 May 2010	UNISEC  Japan	Flyby	Spacecraft failure	Communications never established after launch. Flew past Venus in December 2010	H-IIA 202
Parker Solar Probe	12 August 2018	NASA  United States	Gravity assist	Operational	Flybys on 10 October 2018, 26 December 2019, 11 July 2020, 20 February 2021, 16 October 2021, 21 August 2023, and 6 November 2024 to lower perihelion for solar observation.	Delta IV Heavy/Star 48BV
BepiColombo	20 October 2018	ESA	Gravity assist	Successful	Flybys on 15 October 2020 and 11 August 2021 en route to Mercury; observed Venus during closest pass.	Ariane 5 ECA
Solar Orbiter	10 February 2020	ESA	Gravity assist	Operational	Flybys on 27 Dec 2020, 8 Aug 2021, 3 Sep 2022, 18 Feb 2025, 24 Dec 2026, 17 Mar 2028, 10 Jun 2029, and 2 Sep 2030 to adjust orbital inclination.	Atlas V 411

Statistics

Mission milestone by country

Legend

  Achieved
  Failed attempt
† First to achieve

Country	Flyby	Orbit	Atmospheric entry	Impact	Lander	Rover
Soviet Union	Venera 1, 1961 †	Venera 9, 1975 †	Venera 3, 1966 †	Venera 3, 1966 †	Venera 7, 1970 †	—
United States	Mariner 2, 1962	Pioneer Venus 1, 1978	Pioneer Venus 2, 1978	Pioneer Venus 2, 1978	Pioneer Venus 2, 1978	—
ESA	Venus Express, 2006	Venus Express, 2006	—	—	—	—
Japan	Akatsuki, 2010	Akatsuki, 2015	—	—	—	—

By organization

Country	Agency or company	Successful	Partial failure	Failure	Operational	Gravity assist	Total
USSR	Energia	-	-	11	-	-	11
	Lavochkin	14	1	3	-	-	18
USA	NASA	6	-	1	-	4	11
ESA	ESA	1	-	-	-	2	3
Japan	JAXA	1	-	-	1	-	2
	UNISEC	-	-	1	-	-	1

Future missions

Under development

Name	Operator	Proposed launch year	Type	Status	Reference
Venus Life Finder	MIT/Rocket Lab	2025	Atmospheric probe	under development	[16]
MBR Explorer	UAESA	2028	Flyby	under development	[17] [18]
Venus Orbiter Mission	ISRO	29 March 2028[19]	Orbiter/atmospheric probe	under development	[20]
VERITAS	NASA	2031	Orbiter	under development	[21][22]
DAVINCI	NASA	2031–2032	Atmospheric probe	under development	[21][23]
EnVision	ESA	2031–2032	Orbiter	under development	[24]

Proposed missions

Name	Operator	Proposed launch year	Type	Status	Reference
Venus Volcano Imaging and Climate Explorer (VOICE)	CNSA	2026	Orbiter	not selected	[25][26]
Venera-D	Roscosmos	2029	Orbiter/Lander	proposed	[27]
CUVE	NASA		orbiter	proposed	[28][29]
EVE	ESA		orbiter	not selected	[30]
HAVOC	NASA		crewed aircraft	not developed [needs update]	[31]
VAMP	NASA	2029	atmospheric balloon	not selected	[32][33]
VICI	NASA	2027	lander	not selected	[34][35]
VISAGE	NASA	2027	lander	not selected	[36][37][38]
VISE	NASA	2024	lander and balloon	not selected	[39]
VOX	NASA	2027	orbiter	not selected	[40][41]
Zephyr	NASA	2039	rover	Feasibility study	[42]

See also

• Timeline of Solar System exploration
  • List of missions to the Moon
  • List of missions to Mars
  • List of missions to minor planets
  • List of missions to the outer planets

References

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2. "Pioneer Venus 2". Retrieved 30 December 2023. The so-called Day Probe transmitted data from the surface for 67 minutes, 37 seconds, before succumbing to the high temperatures, pressures and power depletion.
3. "Pioneer Venus Probes". Retrieved 30 December 2023.
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5. "Summary of the Pioneer Venus MIssion". Retrieved 30 December 2023.
6. "40 Years Ago, Pioneers Encounter Venus". 10 December 2018. Retrieved 30 December 2023. Amazingly, two of the probes survived touchdown and continued to return data from the surface – Night Probe for just 2 seconds (it likely tipped over after landing) and Day Probe for 68 minutes.
7. McDowell, Jonathan. "Launch Log". Jonathan's Space Page. Retrieved 21 January 2013.
8. Krebs, Gunter. "Interplanetary Probes". Gunter's Space Page. Retrieved 21 January 2013.
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10. Siddiqi, Asif A. (2002). "1962" (PDF). Deep Space Chronicle: A Chronology of Deep Space and Planetary Probes 1958-2000. Monographs in Aerospace History, No. 24. NASA History Office. pp. 34–37.
11. Siddiqi, Asif A. (2002). "1964" (PDF). Deep Space Chronicle: A Chronology of Deep Space and Planetary Probes 1958-2000. Monographs in Aerospace History, No. 24. NASA History Office. pp. 41–45.
12. Siddiqi, Asif A. (2002). "1965" (PDF). Deep Space Chronicle: A Chronology of Deep Space and Planetary Probes 1958-2000. Monographs in Aerospace History, No. 24. NASA History Office. pp. 47–52.
13. "Venera-4: Plumbing the Atmosphere of Venus".
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15. ESA Science & Technology: Venus Express goes gently into the night
16. Foust, Jeff (31 October 2023). "Rocket Lab plans launch of Venus mission as soon as late 2024". SpaceNews.com. Retrieved 31 October 2023.
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18. Davis, Leonard (4 September 2024). "UAE on track to launch bold 7-asteroid mission in 2028". Space.com.
19. "Isro announces launch date of ambitious Venus Orbiter Mission". India Today. 1 October 2024. Retrieved 2 October 2024.
20. Jones, Andrew (18 September 2024). "India approves moon sample return, Venus orbiter, space station module and reusable launcher". SpaceNews. Retrieved 18 September 2024.
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22. Howell, Elizabeth (4 November 2022). "Problems with NASA asteroid mission Psyche delay Venus probe's launch to 2031". Space.com. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
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25. "Andrew Jones published (July 14, 2022). "China's proposed Venus mission would investigate the planet's atmosphere and geology". Space.com. 14 July 2022. Retrieved 10 March 2023.
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39. LARRY W ESPOSITO. Mission Concept: Venus in situ Explorer (VISE).
40. Smrekar, Suzanne; Dyar, M. D.; et al. (eds.). Venus Origins Explorer (VOX), a Proposed New Frontier Mission (PDF). The Venus Exploration Analysis Group.
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42. Zephyr: A Landsailing Rover For Venus. (PDF) Geoffrey A. Landis, Steven R. Oleson, David Grantier, and the COMPASS team. NASA John Glenn Research Center. 65th International Astronautical Congress, Toronto, Canada. February 24, 2015. Report: IAC-14,A3,P,31x26111

External links

• "Official DAVINCI mission website". Retrieved 11 January 2023.
• Bonnier Corporation (2003). "Is There Life on Venus?". Popular Science. Bonnier Corporation. p. 49.