Jul 10
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Venera-7 "Awl in a Sack"
Hi, so, I wanted to highlight something I learned a while back but didn't think to share here iirc
basically here in the US we have a very NASA centric view of the history of space exploration (for obvious reasons) and the accomplishments of other space programs are rarely celebrated if not downright ignored. The Soviet space program accomplished a TON of stuff that is often forgotten about around here. We love to relish the fact that NASA put the first astronauts on the moon, but the Soviets beat the US in basically every single other milestone before then. First satellite (Sputnik) first unmanned craft, first animal in space (Laika the dog) first manned craft and even first EVA (extravehicular activity) in space. Not only that, they deadass put unmanned probes with cameras ON THE SURFACE OF VENUS!
That's right, on the surface of another planet. I can't believe I was never made aware of this until so recently, it's shocking to me. There's color photographs of what the surface of Venus looks like. This is an absolutely monumental achievement and it happened so long ago and I didn't even know because the only things I've been taught about space travel are about NASA.
The images are really unbelievable, you guys should take a look at the article. Some I've seen are like, "reconstructions" that kinda put together the few existing images to form like, a proper landscape, but even just the raw images are incredible. We actually know what the surface of another planet looks like, other than Mars. That's buck wild. And you know what, while researching and writing this, I've JUST learned that the first Mars lander? That was Soviet as well!
It's insane how a country can present the world in such a narrowly nationalistic way that accomplishments like these might as well never have happened to a modern American. I wanna take a few moments to shout out nations other than America that have accomplished feats of space exploration. You can find a full list on this Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_government_space_agencies
Judging by the table on that article, there have been 77 space agencies as of 2024, 70 of which are/were national agencies and 7 of which are international organizations. Some especially impressive ones, the agencies that have put an astronaut in space, operate satellites, build satellites and/or spacecraft parts, and are capable of retrieving scientific payloads from space, are the following:
-China National Space Administration
-European Space Agency
-Indian Space Research Organisation (I knew about this one!)
-Iranian Space Agency
-Roscosmos State Corporation for Space Activities (Russia)
-Soviet Space Program
-NASA :)
I find it comforting to know how much of the world has engaged in space exploration. There's this idea in Science Fiction of the Earthling as a unified identity. In optimistic fiction we see all nations coming together to push out into the stars, combining all their resources to ensure our future, and while cooperation has not always been our strong suit, (they didn't call it the Cold War for nothing) things like the International Space Station and other joint scientific programs have been a testament to that idea. Seeing so many countries on this list makes me feel like humanity does have a future in the stars after all.
On this day in 1970, the Soviet Union's Venera 7 spacecraft launched from Baikonur toward Venus, to become the first craft from Earth to transmit data from the surface of another planet.
Following Venera 1 through 6, which were designed as flyby probes, crash probes, and atmospheric probes, Venera 7 was engineered to survive the intense heat and pressure expected on the surface of Venus, including temperatures of 467 degrees Celsius, 864 degrees Fahrenheit.
Upon reaching Venus on December 15, Venera 7, deployed its parachute to begin testing the atmosphere before landing. The parachute then failed, Venera 7 struck the surface of Venus, landing on its side, knocking the communications antenna out of alignment with Earth. While the craft first appeared to be lost, it began recording and, weakly, transmitting data back to Earth, giving us our first glimpse about this pressure cooker planet from the surface, before the batteries on the probe finally drained and it went silent completely.
With Venera 7, humans for the first time knew the atmospheric pressure, composition, and surface temperature of our sunbaked neighbor.
Bathysphere separation "The Wolves"
Venera 7, "The Wolves"
Venera 7 return trajectory "Plow Deep"
On Aug 17, 1970, Venera 7 launched by the Soviet Union.