Venera 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 programme. 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.
Mockup of the Venera 1 spacecraft
Venera← Tyazhely SputnikVenera 2MV-1 No.1 →
Route of Venera 1 on a Soviet stamp
Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is a terrestrial planet and is the closest in mass and size to its orbital neighbour Earth. Venus is notable for having the densest atmosphere of the terrestrial planets, composed mostly of carbon dioxide with a thick, global sulfuric acid cloud cover. At the surface it has a mean temperature of 737 K and a pressure of 92 times that of Earth's at sea level. These extreme conditions compress carbon dioxide into a supercritical state close to Venus's surface.
True colour image of Venus, as captured by MESSENGER. A global layer of bright sulfuric acid clouds permanently obscures the Venusian surface.
Venus to scale among the terrestrial planets of the Solar System, which are arranged by the order of their Inner Solar System orbits outward from the Sun (from left: Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars)
Surface of Venus as seen by Venera 13.
Radar mosaic of two 65 km (40 mi) wide (and less than 1 km (0.62 mi) high) pancake domes in Venus's Eistla region