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Venera 1

Mockup of the Venera 1 spacecraft
Mission type	Venus impactor
Operator	OKB-1
Harvard designation	1961 Gamma 1
COSPAR ID	1961-003A
SATCAT no.	80
Mission duration	7 days
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft	1VA No.2
Manufacturer	OKB-1
Launch mass	6,424.0 kilograms (14,162.5 lb)
Dry mass	643.5 kilograms (1,419 lb)
Start of mission
Launch date	February 12, 1961, 00:34:36 (1961-02-12UTC00:34:36Z) UTC
Rocket	Molniya 8K78
Launch site	Baikonur 1/5
End of mission
Last contact	19 February 1961 (1961-02-20)
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Heliocentric
Eccentricity	0.173
Perihelion altitude	0.718 AU
Aphelion altitude	1.019 AU
Inclination	0.58°
Period	311 days
Flyby of Venus
Closest approach	19 May 1961
Distance	100,000 km (62,000 mi)
Venera← Tyazhely SputnikVenera 2MV-1 No.1 →

Venera 1 (Russian: Венера-1 meaning Venus 1), also known as Venera-1VA No.2 and occasionally in the West as Sputnik 8 was the first spacecraft to perform an interplanetary flight and the first to fly past Venus, as part of the Soviet Union's Venera program. Launched in February 1961, it flew past Venus on 19 May of the same year; however, radio contact with the probe was lost before the flyby, resulting in it returning no data.

Spacecraft

Venera 1 was a 643.5-kilogram (1,419 lb) probe consisting of a cylindrical body 1.05 metres (3 ft 5 in) in diameter topped by a dome, totalling 2.035 metres (6 ft 8.1 in) in height. This was pressurized to 1.2 standard atmospheres (120 kPa) with dry nitrogen, with internal fans to maintain even distribution of heat. Two solar panels extended from the cylinder, charging a bank of silver-zinc batteries. A 2-metre (6 ft 7 in) parabolic wire-mesh antenna was designed to send data from Venus to Earth on a frequency of 922.8 MHz. A 2.4-metre (7 ft 10 in) antenna boom was used to transmit short-wave signals during the near-Earth phase of the mission. Semidirectional quadrupole antennas mounted on the solar panels provided routine telemetry and telecommand contact with Earth during the mission, on a circularly-polarized decimetre radio band.

The probe was equipped with scientific instruments including a flux-gate magnetometer attached to the antenna boom, two ion traps to measure solar wind, micrometeorite detectors, and Geiger counter tubes and a sodium iodide scintillator for measurement of cosmic radiation. An experiment attached to one solar panel measured temperatures of experimental coatings. Infrared and/or ultraviolet radiometers may have been included. The dome contained a KDU-414 engine used for mid-course corrections. Temperature control was achieved by motorized thermal shutters.

During most of its flight, Venera 1 was spin stabilized. It was the first spacecraft designed to perform mid-course corrections, by entering a mode of 3-axis stabilization, fixing on the Sun and the star Canopus. Had it reached Venus, it would have entered another mode of 3-axis stabilization, fixing on the Sun and Earth, and using for the first time a parabolic antenna to relay data.

Launch

Venera 1 was the second of two attempts to launch a probe to Venus in February 1961, immediately following the launch of its sister ship Venera-1VA No.1, which failed to leave Earth orbit due to the failure of a power transformer. The transformer was wrapped in foil and painted black and white for thermal reasons. Soviet experts launched Venera-1 using a Molniya carrier rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The launch took place at 00:34:36 GMT on 12 February 1961. Vehicle L1-6V steered downrange into a clear blue winter sky and orbit was successfully achieved.

The spacecraft, along with the rocket's Blok-L upper stage, was initially placed into a 229-by-282-kilometre (142 mi × 175 mi) low Earth orbit, before the upper stage fired to place "Venera 1" into a heliocentric orbit, directed towards Venus. The 11D33 engine was the world's first staged-combustion-cycle rocket engine, and also the first use of an ullage engine to allow a liquid-fuel rocket engine to start in space.

Failure

During the first telemetry session, it was found that Venera 1 failed to enter the constant solar orientation mode, which led to a shortage of electrical power on board. While unfortunate, this was expected and in such a case the station had to conduct a rough orientation to the Sun and turn off non-vital systems. However, the radio transmitters had not been adequately designed and communication was shortly lost. The signal was regained on 17 February but it was still unable to lock onto the Sun properly and again went into protective mode and turned off the transmitter. Three successful telemetry sessions were conducted, gathering solar-wind and cosmic-ray data near Earth, at the Earth's Magnetopause, and on February 19 at a distance of 1,900,000 km (1,200,000 mi). After discovering the solar wind with Luna 2, Venera 1 provided the first verification that this plasma was uniformly present in deep space. Seven days later, the next scheduled telemetry session failed to occur. On May 19, 1961, Venera 1 passed within 100,000 km (62,000 mi) of Venus. With the help of the British radio telescope at Jodrell Bank, some weak signals from Venera 1 may have been detected in June. Soviet engineers believed that Venera 1 failed due to the overheating of a solar-direction sensor.

See also

• List of missions to Venus
• Mariner 2
• Timeline of planetary exploration

References

1. ^ "Venera 1". NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive. Retrieved 2019-08-15.
2. NSSDC Chronology of Venus Exploration (NASA Goddard Space Center), accessed August 9, 2010
3. https://habr.com/ru/articles/555132/
4. NSSDC Tentatively Identified (Soviet) Missions and Launch Failures (NASA Goddard Space Center), accessed August 9, 2010
5. McDowell, Jonathan. "Launch Log". Jonathan's Space Page. Retrieved 3 January 2013.
6. "Venera 1 launches toward Venus, February 12, 1961". AspenCore, Inc. Retrieved 2020-06-06.

External links

• The Soviet Exploration of Venus
• NSSDC Master Catalog – Venera 1

v t e Spacecraft missions to Venus
Active missions	Orbiters Akatsuki Flybys Parker Solar Probe (en route) BepiColombo (en route) Solar Orbiter (en route) Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (en route)
Past missions	Orbiters Magellan Pioneer Venus Orbiter Venera 9 10 15 16 Venus Express Flybys Venera 1 Mariner 2 Zond 1 Venera 2 Mariner 5 10 Venera 11 12 13 14 Vega 1 2 Galileo Cassini–Huygens MESSENGER IKAROS Shin-en Descent probes Venera 3 4 5 6 Pioneer Venus Multiprobe Landers Venera 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Vega 1 2 Pioneer Venus Small Probes Balloon probes Vega 1 2 Failed launches Tyazhely Sputnik Mariner 1 2MV-1 No.1 2MV-1 No.2 2MV-2 No.1 Kosmos 21 3MV-1 No.2 Kosmos 27 96 167 482
Planned missions	Orbiters Venus Orbiter Mission (2028) VERITAS (2031) EnVision (2031) Flybys Dragonfly (2028) MBR Explorer (2028) Tianwen-4 (2030) Descent probes Venus Life Finder (2025) DAVINCI (2031–2032)
Proposed missions	Venus missions CUVE Venera-D Zephyr Flybys Mercury-P Uranus Orbiter and Probe
Cancelled or not developed	AREE European Venus Explorer HAVOC HOVER Inspiration Mars Laplace-P TMK-Mavr VAMP Venus Orbiting Imaging Radar Vesta VICI VISAGE VISE VOICE VOX
Program overviews	Venera 3MV Mariner Pioneer Venus Vega
Related	Colonization Observations and explorations List of artificial objects on Venus List of missions Manned Venus flyby Terraforming VeSpR
Missions are ordered by launch date. indicates failure en route or before any data returned. indicates use of the planet as a gravity assist en route to another destination.

• Venera program
• Spacecraft launched in 1961
• Derelict space probes
• Derelict satellites in heliocentric orbit
• 1961 in the Soviet Union
• 1MV