Venera 7

Venera 7
Reproduction of the Venera 7 lander at the Sergei Pavlovich Korolyov Museum of Cosmonautics
Mission typeVenus lander
OperatorLavochkin
COSPAR ID1970-060A Edit this at Wikidata
SATCAT no.4489
Mission durationOrbiter: 53 years, 11 months and 8 days
(in orbit)
Lander: 23 minutes (final)
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft4V-1 No. 630
ManufacturerLavochkin
Launch mass1,180 kilograms (2,600 lb)[1]
Landing mass500 kilograms (1,100 lb)
Start of mission
Launch date17 August 1970, 05:38:22 (1970-08-17UTC05:38:22Z) UTC[1]
RocketMolniya 8K78M
Launch siteBaikonur 31/6
End of mission
Last contact15 December 1970, 06:00 (1970-12-15UTC07Z) UTC
Orbital parameters
Reference systemHeliocentric
Perihelionit altitude0.69 astronomical units (103,000,000 km)
Apohelionit altitude1.01 astronomical units (151,000,000 km)
Inclination2.0°
Period287 days
Venus lander
Landing date15 December 1970, 05:37:10 UTC
Landing site5°S 351°E / 5°S 351°E / -5; 351

Seal of Venera 7

Venera 7 (Russian: Венера-7, lit.'Venus 7') was a Soviet spacecraft, part of the Venera series of probes to Venus. When it landed the Venusian surface on 15 December 1970, it became the first spacecraft to soft land on another planet and the first to transmit data from there back to Earth.[2][3]

  1. ^ a b Siddiqi 2018, p. 93.
  2. ^ "Science: Onward from Venus". Time. 8 February 1971. Archived from the original on 21 December 2008. Retrieved 2 January 2013.
  3. ^ Siddiqi 2018, pp. 1, 3.