The Soviet Venera probes were a series of spacecraft launched by the Soviet Union between the 1960s and 1980s to explore ...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - A Soviet-era spacecraft meant to land on Venus in the 1970s is expected to soon plunge uncontrolled back to Earth. It’s too early to know where the half-ton mass of metal ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I cover the history of science and exploration. A vintage set of space probe data may help planetary scientists and astronomers ...

Some of those early space probes succeeded in their missions, capturing the first measurements and images from the Venusian surface. Kosmos 482 was not one of them. Launched in 1972, Kosmos 482 was ...

In 1970, Venus was the first planet reached by a space probe — the Soviet probe Venera 7. Within an hour of its arrival, Venera 7 was destroyed by Venus' extremely high temperatures and acidic ...

The Soviet space program had a lot of hope riding on the Cosmos 482 mission when it launched in March 1972. The mission included a lander destined for Venus. The spacecraft never made it out of Earth ...

A Soviet-era spacecraft plunged to Earth on Saturday, more than a half-century after its failed launch to Venus. Its uncontrolled entry was confirmed by both the Russian Space Agency and European ...