Missions to Venus

List of actual historical missions to Venus. Development unofficial names are listed in italics.

Mission (1960–1969)	Launch	Arrival	Termination	Objective	Result
Tyazhely Sputnik	4 February 1961		26 February 1961	Flyby	Launch failure
Venera 1	12 February 1961		26 February 1961	Flyby	Failure (contact lost before the 19 May 1962 100,000 km flyby)
Mariner 1	22 July 1962		22 July 1962	Flyby	Launch failure
Venera 2MV-1 No.1	25 August 1962		28 August 1962	Lander	Launch failure
Mariner 2	27 August 1962	14 December 1962	3 January 1963	Flyby	Success (measurements suggested cool clouds and extremely hot surface)
Venera 2MV-1 No.2	1 September 1962		6 September 1962	Lander	Launch failure
Venera 2MV-2 No.1	12 September 1962		14 September 1962	Flyby	Launch failure
Kosmos 21	11 November 1962		14 November 1962	Flyby?	Launch failure (unknown mission: technology test or fly-by)
Venera 3MV-1 No.2	19 February 1964			Flyby	Launch failure
Kosmos 27	27 March 1964			Landing	Launch failure
Zond 1	2 April 1964	14 July 1964	14 May 1964	Lander	Failure (contact lost before a 100,000 km flyby)
Venera 2	12 November 1965	27 February 1966		Lander	Failure (contact lost before a 24,000 km flyby)
Venera 3	16 November 1965	1 March 1966		Lander	Failure (contact lost before the landing)
Kosmos 96	23 November 1965			Flyby	Failure (did not leave Earth orbit)
Venera 4	12 June 1967	18 October 1967	18 October 1967	Lander	Success (first chemical analysis of the Venusian atmosphere, measurements proved that Venus was extremely hot and that the atmosphere was far denser than expected)
Mariner 5	14 June 1967	19 October 1967	November 1967	Flyby	Success (radio occultation atmospheric study, 3,990 km flyby)
Kosmos 167	17 June 1967			Lander	Failure (failed in Earth orbit)
Venera 5	5 January 1969	16 May 1969	16 May 1969	Atmospheric probe	Success (with knowledge about atmosphere gathered by Venera 4 its descent was optimised to analyze the atmosphere further deeper)
Venera 6	10 January 1969	17 May 1969	17 May 1969	Atmospheric probe	Success
Mission (1970–1979)	Launch	Arrival	Termination	Objective	Result
Venera 7	17 August 1970	15 December 1970	15 December 1970	Lander	Success (first man-made spacecraft to successfully land on another planet and to transmit data from there back to Earth)
Kosmos 359	22 August 1970			Lander	Failure
Venera 8	27 March 1972	22 July 1972	22 July 1972	Lander	Success
Kosmos 482	31 March 1972			Lander	Failure
Mariner 10	3 November 1973	5 February 1974	24 March 1975	Flyby	Success (near-ultraviolet images of atmosphere shown unprecedented detail, 5,768 km flyby then continued towards Mercury)
Venera 9	8 June 1975	20 October 1975	~December 25, 1975?	Orbiter	Success (explored cloud layers and atmospheric parameters)
		22 October 1975	22 October 1975	Lander	Success (first images from the surface of another planet)
Venera 10	14 June 1975	23 October 1975		Orbiter	Success
		25 October 1975	25 October 1975	Lander	Success
Pioneer Venus Orbiter	20 March 1978	4 December 1978	August 1992	Orbiter	Success (over thirteen years studying the atmosphere and mapping the surface with S-band radar, conducted joint mapping with the 1990 Magellan probe)
Pioneer Venus Multiprobe	8 August 1978	9 December 1978	9 December 1978	Bus	Success
				Large probe	Success
				North probe	Success
				Night probe	Success
				Day probe	Success (continued to send radio signals back after impact, for over an hour)
Venera 11	9 September 1978	25 December 1978	February 1980	Flyby	Success (as did Venera 12 found evidence of lightnings)
		25 December 1978	25 December 1978	Lander	Partial success (failed to deploy some instruments)
Venera 12	14 September 1978	19 December 1978	April 1980	Flyby	Success
		21 December 1978	21 December 1978	Lander	Partial success (failed to deploy some instruments)
Mission (1980–1989)	Launch	Arrival	Termination	Objective	Result
Venera 13	30 October 1981	1 March 1982		Flyby	Success
		1 March 1982	1 March 1982	Lander	Success (first colour images from surface and X-ray fluorescence spectrometry soil characterisation)
Venera 14	4 November 1981			Flyby	Success
		5 March 1982	5 March 1982	Lander	Success
Venera 15	2 June 1983	10 October 1983	~July 1984	Orbiter	Success (synthetic aperture radar on 15 and 16 probes allowed to map 25% of surface)
Venera 16	7 June 1983	11 October 1983	~July 1984	Orbiter	Success
Vega 1	15 December 1984	11 June 1985	30 January 1987	Flyby	Success (intercepted the Halley comet next year)
			11 June 1985	Lander	Failed (surface experiments were inadvertently activated at 20 km from the surface)
			13 June 1985	Balloon	Success (first balloon in another planet, flew al least 11,600 km)
Vega 2	20 December 1984	15 June 1985	24 March 1987	Flyby	Success (intercepted the Halley comet next year)
			15 June 1985	Lander	Success
			17 June 1985	Balloon	Success (flew al least 11,100 km)
Magellan	4 May 1989	10 August 1990	12 October 1994	Orbiter	Success (provided high-resolution gravimetric data for 94% of the planet, Synthetic Aperture Radar generated a high resolution map of 98% of the surface)
Galileo	18 October 1989	10 February 1990	21 September 2003	Flyby	Success (took some data on its route to Jupiter, 16,106 km maximum approach)
Mission (2000–2009)	Launch	Arrival	Termination	Objective	Result
Cassini	1 June 2004	26 April 1998 and 24 June 1999	ongoing	2 Flybys	Success (radio frequency observations on its route to Saturn shown no signs of lightnings in Venus)
MESSENGER	31 August 2004	24 October 2006 and 5 June 2007	ongoing	2 Flybys	Success (very close second flyby at 338 km in which visible, near-infrared, ultraviolet and X-ray spectrometry of the upper atmosphere was made simultaneously with the Venus Express probe, no observations in first flyby)
Venus Express	9 November 2005	11 April 2006	ongoing	Orbiter	Success (detailed long term observation of the Venusian atmosphere)
Mission (2010–present)	Launch	Arrival	Termination	Objective	Result
Akatsuki	20 May 2010		ongoing	Orbiter	Failure (orbital insertion maneuver failed in 2010, will be tried again in 2016)

Future missions

Name	Estimated launch	Elements	Notes
BepiColombo	July 2014	Flyby	Planned Mercury orbiter.
Venus Orbiter Mission	May 20, 2015	Orbiter	Planned Venus Orbiter.
Venera-D	2016	Orbiter	To sense composition of the planet's atmosphere and its circulation patterns
		Balloons	Two balloons to sense acoustic and electrical activities of atmosphere
		Microprobes	Up to four atmospheric sensing probes launched from the balloons
		Lander	Designed for one-hour lifespan after touchdown in Tessera