Wednesday, October 28, 2026

1975-06-08 · 51 years ago

Venera-9 — launch

Date in UTC

Venera 9, manufacturer's designation: 4V-1 No. 660, was a Soviet uncrewed space mission to Venus. It consisted of an orbiter and a lander. It was launched on June 8, 1975, at 02:38:00 UTC and had a mass of 4,936 kilograms (10,882 lb). The orbiter was the first spacecraft to orbit Venus, while the lander was the first to return images from the surface of another planet. The orbiter entered Venus orbit on October 20, 1975. Its mission was to act as a communications relay for the lander and to explore cloud layers and atmospheric parameters with several instruments and experiments. It performed 17 survey missions from October 26, 1975, to December 25, 1975.

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venera_9. Related NASA reference: https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/chronology.html#1975. Description adapted from Wikipedia contributors (CC BY-SA 4.0; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).

Category
Launches and Flight Tests
Type
Orbital launch
Subjects
Space transportation
Mission
Venera-9
Organization
Strategic Rocket Forces
Vehicle
Proton-K/D
Location
NIIP-5, Baykonur, Kazakstan
Country
SU
Human involvement
Uncrewed
Outcome
Successful

Sources and attribution

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