Venus became the first planet to be explored by a spacecraft when NASA’s Mariner 2 successfully flew by the planet at a range of 21,660 miles (34,854 kilometers) on Dec. 14, 1962. During a 42-minute scan, the spacecraft gathered significant data on the atmosphere and surface before continuing to heliocentric orbit.
Since Mariner 2, numerous spacecraft from the U.S. and other space agencies have explored Venus, including NASA’s Magellan. Magellan entered orbit on Aug. 10, 1990, and over the next four years, it used radar to pierce the planet's clouds, providing the first clear views of most of the planet’s surface. It found volcanoes, long lava channels, pancake-shaped domes, and evidence of hot mantle plumes at depth (like the one responsible for creating the Hawaiian islands).
More recently, ESA’s Venus Express orbited from 2006 to 2014. Japan’s Akatsuki Venus Climate Orbiter has been orbiting Venus since 2016.
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has made multiple flybys of Venus, coming within about 515 miles (830 kilometers) of the surface on July 11, 2020. During that brief encounter, Parker detected a natural radio signal that revealed the spacecraft had flown through the planet’s upper atmosphere. This was the first direct measurement of the Venusian atmosphere in nearly 30 years – and it looked quite different from Venus’s past. A study of data from the Parker mission confirmed that Venus’ upper atmosphere undergoes puzzling changes over a solar cycle, the Sun’s 11-year activity cycle. The research marked the latest clue to untangling how and why Venus and Earth are so different.
On Feb. 9, 2022, NASA announced that Parker had captured its first visible light images of the surface of Venus from space during its February 2021 flyby.
In June 2021, three new missions to Venus were announced. NASA announced two new missions, and ESA announced one:
- VERITAS: NASA's VERITAS, or Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy, will be the first NASA spacecraft to explore Venus since the 1990s. The spacecraft will launch no earlier than December 2027. It will orbit Venus, gathering data to reveal how the paths of Venus and Earth diverged, and how Venus lost its potential to be a habitable world.
- DAVINCI: NASA’s DAVINCI mission will launch in the late 2020s. After exploring the top of Venus’s atmosphere, DAVINCI will drop a probe to the surface. On its hour-long descent, the probe will take thousands of measurements and snap up-close images of the surface. The probe may not survive the landing, but if it does, it could provide several minutes of bonus science.
- EnVision: ESA has selected EnVision to make detailed observations of Venus. As a key partner in the mission, NASA is providing the Synthetic Aperture Radar, called VenSAR, to make high-resolution measurements of the planet’s surface features.
Exploring the surface of Venus is difficult because of the intense heat and crushing air pressure. The longest any spacecraft has survived on the surface is a little over two hours – a record set by the Soviet Union’s Venera 13 probe in 1981. The probe returned the first color images of the surface of Venus. The last spacecraft to land on Venus was the Soviet Vega 2 mission in 1985. It survived only 52 minutes.
Earth-based radio telescopes also study Venus, including the Goldstone Solar System Radar in California, Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, and Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia.
Of course, you don’t need a spacecraft or a telescope to observe Venus. It’s the third brightest object in our sky after the Sun and Moon. It’s easy to spot in the evening or morning sky, and people have been watching Venus with their own eyes since ancient times.
As one of just two bodies between Earth and the Sun, Venus periodically passes across the face of the Sun – a phenomenon called a transit. The most recent transit occurred in 2012, and the next one isn’t until December 2117. (Transits are one of several methods astronomers use to detect exoplanets or planets outside our solar system.)
Significant EventsNotable Explorers
10 Careers That Explore Space
Astronaut
Astronauts pave the way for human exploration beyond our Earth. They are pilots, scientists, engineers, teachers, and more.
Project Manager
Project managers guide missions from concept to completion, working closely with team members to accomplish what they set out to do.
Rover Camera Operator
A camera payload uplink lead writes software commands that tell a rover what pictures to take.
The first thing that fired my imagination for planetary science was when the NASA Voyager spacecraft discovered active volcanoes on Jupiter's moon Io.
Artist
Melding science with design, artists create everything from large-scale installations to the NASA posters hanging in your bedroom.
Media Specialist
Media specialists tells stories across social media and help feature missions and people on TV and in films, books, magazines, and news sites.
Writer/Producer
Writers/producers capture the incredible stories of NASA's missions and people and share them with the world.
Administrator/Director
Administrators and directors work out of NASA headquarters, prioritizing science questions and seeking to expand the frontiers of discovery.
Educator
Whether it's introducing kids to space or teaching physics to PhD candidates, educators help share their knowledge with the public.
Engineer
Engineers design and build all types of machines, from what a spacecraft looks like to the software that directs where a rover goes each day.
Scientist
From an astrophysicist to a volcanologist, scientists of all types pose questions and help find answers to the mysteries of our universe.
The important thing about being a scientist or an engineer is learning how to think critically, learning how to be creative, learning problem solving and learning how to learn.
