On this date, Jan. 6, 1969, the Soviet Union launched the Venera 5 spacecraft, which was part of an ongoing mission to explore Earth’s sister planet, Venus. Venera 5 successfully entered Venus’ ...
moment.” Since the spacecraft launched in 2018, it has circled gradually closer to the sun – flying past Venus in order to use the planet’s gravity to move it into a tighter orbit.
They also could map the outer boundary of the Sun’s atmosphere. The spacecraft also zoomed past Venus seven times to use its gravity to aim toward a record-setting series of flights around the Sun. On ...