image of Venus with detailed surface features

Venus: Exploration

Dozens of spacecraft have launched to explore Venus, but not all have been successful. NASA's Mariner 2 was the first spacecraft to visit any planet beyond Earth when it flew past Venus on Dec. 14, 1962. NASA is planning two new missions to Venus: VERITAS, and DAVINCI.

All NASA Science Missions

PLANET Location

Inner Solar System

FIRST NASA MISSION

Mariner 2

TOTAL MISSIONS

40+

FUTURE NASA MISSIONS

Why Return to Venus?

How did Venus become a sulfurous inferno, while Earth evolved to become the only known world with life?

Although not currently habitable, Venus lies within the Sun’s "Goldilocks zone," and may have been habitable before Earth. Exploring the surface of Venus is difficult because of the intense heat and crushing air pressure.

Contrary to its serene appearance, Venus is a world of intense heat, crushing atmospheric pressure and clouds of corrosive acid.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

VERITAS

Venus Emissivity, Radio science, InSAR, Topography, And Spectroscopy

VERITAS, together with NASA’s planned Davinci mission, represents the first U.S.-led exploration of Venus since Magellan three decades ago. The mission is designed to bring the VERITAS science investigations into a low, circular orbit around Venus, in order to collect high-resolution, global maps of the hellish surface hidden beneath the clouds.

Illustration of VERITAS orbiter over Venus.

VERITAS: Expected to launch no earlier than 2031, VERITAS will map Venus’ surface to determine the planet’s geologic history and understand why it developed so differently than Earth.

NASA /JPL-Caltech

DAVINCI

Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging

DAVINCI will study Venus from its clouds down to the planet's surface – the first mission to study Venus using both flybys and a descent probe.

An illustration of the DAVINCI probe resting on the surface of Venus.

Credit: NASA/GSFC

EnVision

ESA's Cosmic Vision Program

ESA has selected EnVision to make detailed observations of Venus. As a key partner in the mission, NASA is providing the Synthetic Aperture Radar, called VenSAR, to make high-resolution measurements of the planet’s surface features.

Illustration showing EnVision in front of alternate versions of Venus. One version is warm and wet. The other is the rugged wasteland we know today.

Artist's concept of EnVision at Venus.

Credt: ESA

Featured Missions to Venus

More than 40 missions have been launched to explore Venus.

Akatsuki

Akatsuki is Japan's first mission to explore Venus. It launched in May 2010.

Two men hold up a more than 20-foot-long strip of paper containing Venus science data.

Mariner 2

Mariner 2 became the first successful mission to another planet when it flew by Venus on Dec. 14, 1962.

Pioneer Venus 1

Pioneer Venus 1 launched on May 20, 1978, and was the first American spacecraft to orbit Venus.

A long cylindrical spacecraft with an antenna dish on one end emerges from the cargo bay of the Space Shuttle.

Magellan

NASA's Magellan launched May 4, 1989, and was the first spacecraft to image the entire surface of Venus.

Venus Express

Venus Express launched Nov. 9, 2005, and was the first European spacecraft to orbit Venus.

Artist concept of space probe descending to Venus

DAVINCI

This future NASA mission will study Venus from near the top of the clouds to the planet’s surface.

A gray spacecraft is illustrated over Venus with one of its instruments scanning the planet below.

VERITAS

VERITAS will be among the first NASA spacecraft to explore Earth’s sister planet Venus since the 1990s.

EnVision

EnVision is an ESA Venus orbiter set to launch in the early 2030’s, to study the planet’s history, activity and climate.

Launch Date	Spacecraft	Nation	Type	Outcome
Feb. 4, 1961	Sputnik 7 (Venera 1VA/No. 1)	USSR	Impact	Failure
Feb. 12, 1961	Venera 1	USSR	Impact	Failure
July 22, 1962	Mariner 1	USA	Flyby	Failure
Aug. 27, 1962	Mariner 2	USA	Flyby	Success-First
Sept. 1, 1962	Sputnik 20 (Venera 2MV-1 No. 4)	USSR	Lander	Failure
Sept. 12, 1962	Sputnik 21 (2MV-2/ No. 1	USSR	Flyby	Failure
Feb. 19, 1964	Zond 3MV-1A No. 4A (also No. 2)	USSR	Flyby	Failure
March 27, 1964	Cosmos 27 (Venera)	USSR	Flyby/Hard-Lander Probe	Failure
April 2, 1964	Zond 1	USSR	Flyby/Lander	Failure
Nov. 12, 1965	Venera 2	USSR	Flyby	Failure
Nov. 16, 1965	Venera 3	USSR	Impact	Success-First
Nov. 23, 1965	Cosmos 96	USSR	Lander	Failure
June 12, 1967	Venera 4	USSR	Atmospheric Lander Probe	Success-First
June 14, 1967	Mariner 5	USA	Flyby	Success
June 17, 1967	Cosmos 167	USSR	Lander	Failure
Jan. 5, 1969	Venera 5	USSR	Descent Probe	Success
Jan. 10, 1969	Venera 6	USSR	Descent Probe	Success
Aug. 17,1970	Venera 7	USSR	Lander	Success-First
Aug. 22, 1970	Cosmos 359	USSR	Lander	Failure
March 27, 1972	Venera 8	USSR	Atmospheric Lander Probe	Success
March 31, 1972	Cosmos 482	USSR	Lander	Failure
Nov. 3, 1973	Mariner 10	USA	Flyby	Success
June 8, 1975	Venera 9	USSR	Orbiter/Lander	Success-First
June 14, 1975	Venera 10	USSR	Orbiter/Lander	Success
May 20, 1978	Pioneer Venus 1	USA	Orbiter	Success
Aug. 8, 1978	Pioneer Venus 2	USA	Probes	Success
Sept. 9, 1978	Venera 11	USSR	Flyby and Lander	Success
Sept. 14, 1978	Venera 12	USSR	Flyby and Lander	Success
Oct. 30, 1981	Venera 13	USSR	Flyby and Lander	Success
Nov. 4, 1981	Venera 14	USSR	Flyby and Lander	Success
June 2, 1983	Venera 15	USSR	Orbiter	Success
June 7, 1983	Venera 16	USSR	Orbiter	Success
Dec. 15, 1984	Vega 1	USSR	Lander/Balloon/Flyby	Success
Dec. 21, 1984	Vega 2	USSR	Lander/Ballon/Flyby	Success
May 4, 1989	Magellan	USA	Orbiter	Success
Oct. 18, 1989	Galileo	USA	Flyby	Success
Oct. 15, 1997	Cassini	USA	Flyby (multiple)	Success
Nov. 9, 2005	Venus Express	ESA	Orbiter	Success
May 20, 2010	Akatsuki	Japan	Orbiter	Success
May 20, 2010	Unitec-1	Japan	Flyby	Partial Success
May 20, 2010	IKAROS	Japan	Flyby	Success
Aug. 12, 2018	Parker Solar Probe	USA	Flyby (multiple)	Success
Oct. 20, 2018	BepiColombo	ESA/JAXA	Flyby (multiple)	Success

Sources:
Siddiqi, Asif A. Beyond Earth: A Chronicle of Deep Space Exploration, 1958-2016. NASA History Program Office, 2018.
NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive (NSSDCA)