Venera 8

Courtesy of NASA's National Space Science Data Center

Launch Date: 1972-03-27
On-orbit dry mass: 1180.00 kg

Description

Venera 8 was a Venus atmospheric probe. Its instrumentation included temperature, pressure, and light sensors as well as radio transmitters. The spacecraft took 117 days to reach Venus, entering the atmosphere on 22 July 1972. Descent speed was reduced from 41,696 km/hr to about 900 km/hr by aerobraking. The 2.5 meter diameter parachute opened at an altitude of 60 km, and a refrigeration system was used to cool the interior components. Venera 8 transmitted data during the descent and continued to send back data for 50 minutes after landing. The probe confirmed the earlier data on the high Venus surface temperature and pressure returned by Venera 7, and also measured the light level as being suitable for surface photography, finding it to be similar to the amount of light on Earth on an overcast day.