Thanks to the National Space Science Data Center for the history of this game.
And now, the play-by-play.
| Score | Launch Date/Time (UTC) | Name | Player | Details | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1:0 | 1961 Feb 4 09:36:00 | Sputnik 7 | Russia | The first play of the game and it's an incomplete. The probe was successfully launched into Earth orbit and the payload consisted of an Earth orbiting launch platform and the Venera probe. The fourth stage was supposed to launch the Venera probe towards a landing on Venus after one Earth orbit but ignition failed, probably due to a faulty timer, and the spacecraft remained in Earth orbit. | |
| 2:0 | 1961 Feb 12 02:09:00 | Venera 1 | Russia | A swing and a miss: On February 19, seven days after launch and at a distance of about 2,000,000 km from Earth, contact with the spacecraft was lost. On May 19, Venera 1 passed within 100,000 km of Venus and entered a heliocentric orbit. | |
| 3:0 | 1962 Jul 22 09:21:23 | Mariner 1 | USA | The vehicle was destroyed by the Range Safety Officer 293 seconds after launch at 09:26:16 UT when it veered off course. Apparently, someone neglected a hyphen in the data-editing program on the flight computer. | |
| 4:0 | 1962 Aug 25 02:52:00 | Sputnik 19 | Russia | The launcher put the spacecraft into Earth orbit, but the escape stage failed and the probe remained in geocentric orbit for three days until the orbit decayed on August 28 and it re-entered Earth's atmosphere. | |
| 4:1 | 1962 Aug 27 06:53:14 | Mariner 2 | USA |
SCORE! But it wasn't easy: On September 8 17:50 UT the spacecraft
suddenly lost its attitude control, which was restored by the
gyroscopes 3 minutes later. The cause was unknown but may have been a
collision with a small object. Then, on November 15, one solar panel
failed. However, the probe got within 34,773 km of the planet
on December 14 19:59:28.
Much of the baseline information that we know about Venus came from this probe: a slow retrograde rotation rate for Venus, hot surface temperatures and high surface pressures, a predominantly carbon dioxide atmosphere, continuous cloud cover with a top altitude of about 60 km, and no detectable magnetic field. The last transmission from Mariner 2 was received on 1963 January 3 at 07:00 UT. Mariner 2 remains in heliocentric orbit. |
|
| 5:1 | 1962 Sep 1 02:24:00 | Sputnik 20 | Russia |
The launcher put the spacecraft into Earth orbit, but the escape stage
failed and the probe remained in geocentric orbit for five days until
the orbit decayed and it re-entered Earth's atmosphere.
Sound familliar? |
|
| 6:1 | 1962 Sep 12 01:40:00 | Sputnik 21 | Russia | The launcher put the spacecraft into Earth orbit, but the escape stage failed. This time, the probe did not remain in orbit. That's because the escape stage EXPLODED. | |
| 7:1 | 1963 Nov 11 06:28:00 | Cosmos 21 | Russia |
The launcher put the spacecraft into Earth orbit, but the escape stage
failed and the probe remained in geocentric orbit for three days until
the orbit decayed and it re-entered Earth's atmosphere.
Someone needs to sit down and have a talk with this player.... |
|
| 8:1 | 1964 Feb 19 | Venera 1964A | Russia | The spacecraft and launcher failed to attain Earth orbit | |
| 9:1 | 1964 Mar 1 | Venera 1964A | Russia | The spacecraft and launcher failed to attain Earth orbit
Ok, someone else needs to have a talk with this player... |
|
| 10:1 | 1964 Mar 27 03:21:00 | Cosmos 27 | Russia |
The launcher put the spacecraft into Earth orbit, but the escape stage
failed and the probe remained in geocentric orbit until the orbit
decayed and it re-entered Earth's atmosphere.
Venus seems to be doing very well with this standard defense. |
|
| 11:1 | 1964 Apr 2 02:52:00 | Zond 1 | Russia | Once again, Venus sucessfully jams a probe from Earth. The probe flew by Venus at a distance of 100,000 km on 1964 July 14, but communications were lost on 1964 May 14. It now happily orbits the sun. | |
| 12:1 | 1965 Nov 12 05:02:00 | Venera 2 | Russia |
Once again, Venus sucessfully jams a probe from Earth. The probe flew
by Venus at a distance of 24,000 km on 1966 February 27, but
the spacecraft system had ceased to operate before the planet was
reached and returned no data. It now happily orbits the sun. Raspberry, anyone? |
|
| 13:1 | 1965 Nov 16 04:19:00 | Venera 3 | Russia | As if foreshadowing a "landing" on Mars almost exactly five years in the future, and following the lead of Venera 1, Venera 3 "landed" on Venus on 1966 March 1 making it the first probe to "land" on the surface of another planet. It carried a radio communication system, scientific instruments, electrical power sources, and medallions bearing the coat of arms of the U.S.S.R. None of these things do you much good when you "land" on another planet. | |
| 14:1 | 1965 Nov 23 03:22:00 | Cosmos 96 | Russia | You could tell by the red numbers, couldn't you? Let's just say that this one made it to Earth orbit, but a tiny malfunction (read: explosion) damaged the spacecraft (go figure) and kept it from leaving orbit. The damaged spacecraft remained in orbit for 16 days and reentered the Earth's atmosphere on 9 December 1965. | |
| 15:1 | 1965 Nov 26 | Venera 1965A | Russia |
"It is believed the SL-6/A-2-e launcher failed." This brings back memories of those movies of rockets that start lifting off only to sink back to Earth---with the engines still firing. Popcorn, anyone? |
|
| 15:2 | 1967 Jun 12 02:40:00 | Venera 4 | Russia |
After 19 months of therapy, Earth's coach gave Russia the go-ahead to
get back into the game. And this player's next attempt did well:
On 1967 October 18, the spacecraft entered the Venusian atmosphere
carrying a number of scientific instruments. "Signals were returned by
the spacecraft, which braked and then deployed a parachute system after
entering the Venusian atmosphere, until it reached an altitude of
24.96 km." Which kinda makes you wonder what happened after that, doesn't it? | |
| 15:3 | 1967 Jun 14 06:01:00 | Mariner 5 | USA | Preventing the shut-out by carefully watching his team-mate's tactics over the last five years, player USA successfully overcomes Venus' defenses and flies past the planet at a distance of 4,000 km on 1967 October 19. "The spacecraft instruments measured both interplanetary and Venusian magnetic fields, charged particles, and plasmas, as well as the radio refractivity and UV emissions of the Venusian atmosphere." | |
| 16:3 | 1967 Jun 17 02:36:38 | Cosmos 167 | Russia |
Trying to follow on closely with another play, Russia suffers a relapse
when the spacecraft fails to leave Earth orbit and re-enters the
atmosphere eight days later. Russia would have to wait 30 more years for the advent of Zoloft. |
|
| 16:4 | 1969 Jan 05 06:28:00 | Venera 5 | Russia |
In a bout of mania, on 1969 May 16, while the capsule was suspended
from the parachute, 53 minutes of data from the Venusian atmosphere
were returned. Its real mission, if anyone has been paying attention
to this player, was to deposit a medallion bearing the coat of arms of
the U.S.S.R. and a bas-relief of V.I. Lenin to the night side of Venus.
I'm surprised we don't have an altar for Elvis somewhere with all this hero-worship amongst the planets. |
|
| 16:5 | 1969 Jan 10 05:52:00 | Venera 6 | Russia | Just to prove it wasn't a fluke, Russia gets another one in off the hoop. It only transmitted 51 minutes of data back home on 1969 May 17, but that's ok. They got another medallion bearing the coat of arms of the U.S.S.R. and a bas-relief of V.I. Lenin to the night side of Venus---which is what counts. |
| Score | Launch Date/Time (UTC) | Name | Player | Details | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16:6 | 1970 Aug 17 05:38:00 | Venera 7 | Russia | Venera 7 entered the atmosphere of Venus on December 15, 1970, and a landing capsule was jettisoned. While the lander was descending by parachute, the capsule antenna was extended, and signals were returned for 35 min. Another 23 min of very weak signals were received after the spacecraft landed on Venus. This makes Venera 7 the first probe to return data after landing on another planet. | |
| 17:6 | 1970 Aug 22 05:06:09 | Cosmos 359 | Russia | You know the story: The probe gets to orbit, the escape stage fails, a bas-relief of Lenin is now left orbiting the Earth. | |
| 17:7 | 1972 Mar 27 04:15:01 | Venera 8 | Russia |
A splendid play by the Earth player we all love for their fumbles.
The spacecraft entered the Venusian atmosphere on 1972 July 22 at
08:37. Because of the known high temperatures, a refrigeration system
was used to cool the instruments during descent. Venera 8 landed at 09:32 at 10 degrees south, 335 degrees west, in sunlight about 500 km from the morning terminator. It continued to send back data for 50 minutes, 11 seconds after landing before failing due to the harsh surface conditions. The probe confirmed the earlier data on the high Venus surface temperature and pressure (470 C, 90 atmospheres) 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 with roughly 1 km visibility. Well done. | |
| 18:7 | 1972 Mar 31 04:02:33 | Cosmos 482 | Russia |
All together now: The launcher put the spacecraft into Earth orbit,
but the escape stage failed and the spacecraft broke into four pieces,
two of which are still in orbit. We're not sure about the bas-relief of Lenin. |
|
| 18:8 | 1973 Nov 03 05:45:00 | Mariner 10 | USA | Starting a---so far---unbroken winning streak for Earth, in what turns out to be, also, the first double play, Mariner 10 sent back the first high-resolution pictures of Venus on February 5, 1974 at 17:01 at a closest range of 5,768 km before using Venus for the first gravitationaly assisted transfer orbit to Mercury. | |
| 18:9 | 1975 Jun 08 02:38:00 | Venera 9 | Russia |
This orbiter/lander pair arrived at Venus on 1975 October 20. The
orbiter acted as a communications relay for the lander which landed
on October 22 at 05:13 near local noon. A system of circulating fluid
was used to distribute the heat load. This system, plus precooling
prior to entry, permitted operation of the spacecraft for 53 min after
landing.
Although not specifically mentioned in the report, I believe this was the first craft to relay images from the Venusian surface. |
|
| 18:10 | 1975 Jun 14 03:00:31 | Venera 10 | Russia | This orbiter/lander pair arrived at Venus on 1975 October 23. The lander touched down on Venus on October 25 at 05:17 near local noon. It sent back data for an amazing 65 minutes before it succumbed to the intense heat and pressure. The lander was similar to Venera 9 and the landing site was about 2,200 km from the Venera 9 landing site. | |
| 18:11 | 1978 May 20 13:13:00 | Pioneer Venus Orbiter | USA |
This orbiter arrived at Venus on 1978 Decenber 4. It performed a
number of measurements until 1980 July when it went into a state of
hibernation. It was re-animated in 1991 to let the radar mapper
investigate previously inaccessible southern portions of the planet.
In 1992 August the orbiter's fuel ran out and it was destroyed upon entering the Venusian atmosphere |
|
| 18:12 | 1978 Aug 8 07:33:00 | Pioneer Venus Probe Bus | USA |
This five-piece bus/multiprobe arrived at Venus and,
on 1978 November 16, the four probes (named "Large," "North," "Day,"
and "Night") all entered the atmosphere at about 18:50 and impacted the
planet's surface at about 19:45. The Day probe continued transmitting
for an additional 68 minutes after impact before loss of signal. The bus was targeted to enter the Venusian atmosphere at a shallow angle and transmit data to Earth; but with no heat shield or parachute, the bus survived and made measurements only to about 110 km altitude before burning up. |
|
| 18:13 | 1978 Sep 09 03:25:39 | Venera 11 | Russia |
This flight platform/lander pair arrived at Venus on 1978 December 25.
The lander separated from the platform and decended into the atmosphere
as the platform continued past Venus in a heliocentric orbit. The
platform acted as a data relay for the lander for 95 minutes. The lander made a soft landing (if you can call 7.5 m/s "soft") at 06:24 Moscow time and transmitted data on the atmosphere, soil conditions and other phenomenon (lighting and thunder!) until the platform went out of range. |
|
| 18:14 | 1978 Sep 14 02:25:13 | Venera 12 | Russia | Identical to its sister craft, Venera 11, Venera 12 flew past Venus on 1978 December 21 at the target range of 34,000 km and continued past the planet in a heliocentric orbit, just like its sister craft would four days later. It relayed data from the lander for 110 minutes until it flew out of range. |
| Score | Launch Date/Time (UTC) | Name | Player | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18:15 | 1981 Oct 30 06:04:00 | Venera 13 | Russia | Arriving on 1982 March 1, the lander plunged into the Venusian
atmosphere and relayed its data to the platform which, like the
previous missions, flew past Venus into a heliocentric orbit. The
lander survived an amazing 127 minutes at 457C and 84 atmospheres.
This is the lander which sent home the image most people remember. |
| 18:16 | 1981 Nov 4 05:31:00 | Venera 14 | Russia | Four days after Venera 13, Venera 14 dropped off its lander as it flew past the planet in a heliocentric orbit. The lander survived for 57 minutes at 465C and 94 atmospheres approximately 950 km southwest of Venera 13. |
| 18:17 | 1983 Jun 2 02:38:39 | Venera 15 | Russia | This orbiter, in conjunction with Venera 16, mapped the planet from the north pole to 30 degrees north latitude over its eight month operating life. |
| 18:18 | 1983 Jun 7 02:32:00 | Venera 16 | Russia | This orbiter, in conjunction with Venera 15, mapped the planet
from the north pole to 30 degrees north latitude over its eight
month operating life. And the score is tied. |
| 18:19 | 1984 Dec 15 09:16:24 | Vega 1 | Russia | Included a Comet Halley flyby |
| 18:20 | 1984 Dec 21 09:13:52 | Vega 2 | Russia | Included a Comet Halley flyby |
| 18:21 | 1989 May 4 18:46:59 | Magellan | USA | The Venus Radar Mapper project |
| 18:22 | 1989 Oct 18 22:23:00 | Galileo | USA | Venus flyby/Jupiter orbiter |
| Score | Launch Date/Time (UTC) | Name | Player | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18:23 | 1997 Oct 15 08:43:00 | Cassini | USA | Venus flyby/Saturn orbiter |
| Score | Launch Date/Time (UTC) | Name | Player | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18:24 | 2004 Aug 03 06:15:56 | MESSENGER | USA |
Successfully launched and injected into solar orbit 57 minutes later.
It peformed its Earth flyby on 2005 August 2 and will perform two Venus
flybys on 2006 October 24 and 2007 June 6 before it moves on to
Mercury.
2006-10-24: MESSENGER came within 2,990 km of Venus and snapped pictures of the planet from a distance of about 16.5 million km. |
| 18:25 | 2005 Nov 09 03:33:00 |
Venus Express
Mission Page |
ESA | The twin sister of Mars Express,
this mission is set to study the atmosphere and plasma environment
of Venus. After being postponed a week due to contamination of the
launch fairing, Venus Express left from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in
Kazakhstan. Venus orbit insertion should occur on 2006 April 6 where it will be placed into a 250 x 66,000 km polar orbit. The mission is scheduled to last only two Venusian siderial days. |
| ??:?? | 2010 Jan | Planet-C | Japan |