Venus is one of the most difficult worlds in the solar system to explore. Beneath its clouds, surface temperatures are hot enough to melt lead, atmospheric pressure is about 90 times greater than Earth’s at sea level, and the planet is hidden from ordinary cameras by a permanent blanket of cloud.
Despite those conditions, spacecraft have been exploring Venus since the early years of the space age. Soviet landers survived on its surface, NASA mapped almost the entire planet using radar, and later orbiters revealed a dynamic atmosphere and evidence that Venus may still be volcanically active. Here are ten milestones in the exploration of Earth’s neighboring planet.
1. Mariner 2 Made the First Successful Planetary Encounter
NASA’s Mariner 2 flew past Venus on December 14, 1962, becoming the first spacecraft to successfully encounter another planet.
Its measurements helped establish just how hostile Venus really is. Instead of finding a temperate world beneath the clouds, Mariner 2 confirmed extremely high temperatures and provided evidence that the heat extended across the planet rather than being confined to its sunlit side.
The mission lasted only a few months, but it marked the beginning of successful robotic exploration beyond Earth.
2. Venera 3 Became the First Spacecraft to Reach Another Planet
The Soviet Union launched a remarkable series of missions toward Venus under the Venera program. On March 1, 1966, Venera 3 reached Venus and impacted the planet, becoming the first human-made spacecraft to reach the surface of another planet.
Venera 3 stopped transmitting before arrival, so it returned no data from the Venusian environment. Nevertheless, it represented an important milestone in planetary exploration.
Later Venera spacecraft were redesigned to withstand the tremendous pressure and temperature encountered beneath Venus’s clouds.
3. Venera 7 Made the First Successful Landing on Another Planet
On December 15, 1970, Venera 7 became the first spacecraft to make a successful landing on another planet and transmit data from its surface.
The probe survived the descent through Venus’s dense atmosphere and continued transmitting after reaching the ground. Although the surface signal was weak, analysis showed that the spacecraft had continued sending data for more than 20 minutes after landing.
Its measurements confirmed a surface temperature of roughly 475°C (887°F) and enormous atmospheric pressure, demonstrating conclusively that Venus has one of the most hostile surfaces in the solar system.
4. The Venera Landers Sent Back the First Pictures From Venus
Venera 9 achieved another historic first in October 1975 when its lander returned the first photographs from the surface of another planet.
The images revealed a rocky landscape quite unlike the featureless surface some researchers had expected beneath Venus’s clouds. Later landers returned increasingly sophisticated observations.
In March 1982, Venera 13 transmitted color panoramas of the Venusian surface and analyzed the surrounding material. Despite temperatures around 460°C (860°F) and crushing atmospheric pressure, the lander survived for more than two hours.
5. Pioneer Venus Explored the Atmosphere From Above and Within
NASA returned to Venus in 1978 with the Pioneer Venus project, consisting of an orbiter and a separate spacecraft carrying atmospheric probes.
The Pioneer Venus Multiprobe released four probes into the atmosphere. They measured temperature, pressure, cloud properties and atmospheric composition while descending toward different regions of the planet.
Meanwhile, the Pioneer Venus Orbiter studied the atmosphere, ionosphere and interaction between Venus and the solar wind. It remained operational until 1992, giving scientists more than a decade of observations.
6. Magellan Mapped Almost the Entire Surface With Radar
Venus’s opaque clouds prevent ordinary cameras in orbit from seeing its surface, so NASA’s Magellan spacecraft used radar instead.
Magellan arrived at Venus in 1990 and went on to map about 98% of the planet’s surface. Its observations revealed enormous volcanoes, vast lava plains, impact craters, mountains and unusual tectonic structures.
The mission fundamentally changed our picture of Venus. Rather than an ancient, geologically dead surface covered with countless impact craters, Magellan revealed a comparatively young landscape that had been extensively modified by volcanism and tectonic activity.
Magellan also mapped Venus’s gravity field before the mission ended in 1994. The spacecraft was deliberately lowered into the atmosphere, allowing engineers to gather additional atmospheric data before contact was lost.
7. Venus Express Revealed a Dynamic Atmosphere
The European Space Agency’s Venus Express entered orbit in April 2006 and spent more than eight years studying the planet.
Its instruments investigated the atmosphere from the surface-facing lower layers to the planet’s interaction with the solar wind. Among its discoveries was an ozone layer high in Venus’s atmosphere, demonstrating that ozone by itself is not necessarily evidence of biological activity.
Venus Express also studied the planet’s extraordinary atmospheric super-rotation. Although Venus itself takes about 243 Earth days to rotate once, its upper atmosphere circles the planet in only a few Earth days.
The mission also detected changes in infrared emissions from the surface that added to evidence that Venus could still be volcanically active.
8. Akatsuki Became Japan’s First Successful Planetary Orbiter
Japan’s Akatsuki spacecraft had one of the most remarkable recoveries in planetary exploration.
Launched in 2010, it was supposed to enter orbit around Venus later that year, but a propulsion-system problem caused the maneuver to fail. The spacecraft instead continued around the Sun.
Five years later, JAXA engineers successfully used Akatsuki’s smaller attitude-control thrusters to place it into Venus orbit in December 2015.
Akatsuki subsequently studied Venus’s clouds and atmospheric circulation for more than eight years. Its discoveries included a huge stationary bow-shaped atmospheric feature associated with waves generated as winds passed over the planet’s mountainous terrain. Its observations also helped scientists investigate how Venus maintains its extraordinarily fast atmospheric super-rotation.
Communications were lost in April 2024. After attempts to restore contact were unsuccessful, JAXA formally ended Akatsuki operations on September 18, 2025.
9. Old Magellan Data Revealed Evidence of Active Volcanoes
Some of the most exciting recent discoveries about Venus have come not from a new spacecraft, but from scientists taking another look at observations collected by Magellan more than three decades ago.
Researchers comparing radar images taken months apart found that a volcanic vent near Maat Mons had changed shape and increased substantially in size between observations in 1991. The most convincing explanation was volcanic activity occurring while Magellan was orbiting Venus.
Further analysis of Magellan data subsequently identified changes consistent with fresh lava flows at additional locations.
The findings provide some of the strongest direct evidence yet that Venus is a geologically active world. They also demonstrate the lasting value of planetary mission archives: spacecraft can continue making discoveries decades after they stop operating.
10. A New Generation of Venus Missions Is Coming
After a long gap, Venus is again becoming a major target for planetary exploration.
NASA’s DAVINCI mission will send a probe through Venus’s atmosphere, measuring its composition during descent and obtaining detailed images of the surface below the clouds. These measurements should help scientists reconstruct how the atmosphere formed and changed over time.
NASA’s VERITAS orbiter is designed to map Venus at far higher resolution than Magellan, allowing scientists to investigate the planet’s geology, interior and possible present-day volcanic activity.
The European Space Agency is also developing Envision, an orbiter that will study Venus from its interior through its surface and atmosphere. Envision is currently planned for launch in November 2031.
Together, these missions should allow scientists to investigate one of the biggest questions in planetary science: why did Venus and Earth, two worlds of similar size and composition, evolve into such radically different planets?