On Dec. 24, 1978, Venera 11 landed on Venus. Venera 11 was a robotic mission launched by the Soviet Union to explore Venus along with its sister spacecraft Venera 12. Venera 11 launched in September ...

In 1975, a Soviet probe plunged through Venus’s thick, poisonous atmosphere, landed on a terrain never seen by a human eye, and lasted only 53 minutes before being overwhelmed by the heat and pressure ...