Venera 1 Flies by Venus: Humanity Touches Another World
The Soviet space probe Venera 1 flew past Venus at a distance of approximately 100,000 kilometers on May 19, 1961, becoming the first spacecraft to fly by another planet. However, radio contact had been lost on February 17, seven days after launch, due to an overheating problem in the orientation sensor. The probe passed Venus in silence, unable to transmit any data. Despite this failure, the mission proved that spacecraft could survive the interplanetary journey. The Soviet Venera program eventually achieved remarkable successes: Venera 7 became the first spacecraft to land on another planet in 1970, and Venera 13 transmitted the first color photographs from Venus's surface in 1982, surviving for 127 minutes in temperatures of 457 degrees Celsius and atmospheric pressure 89 times greater than Earth's.
May 19, 1961
65 years ago
Key Figures & Places
What Else Happened on May 19
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