On this day in space! Dec. 24, 1978: Venera 11 lands on Venus

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On Dec. 24, 1978, Venera 11 landed on Venus.

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.

An illustration of Venera 11 on the surface of Venus (Image credit: NASA)

The Venera spacecraft had instruments designed to study the planet's atmosphere and temperatures, as well as the chemical composition of its soil. It even carried a device called Groza that detected lightning on Venus. Although it did have cameras on board, the lander didn't take any photos of Venus because the lens cover failed to pop off.

On This Day in Space: See our full 365-day video archive!

Hanneke Weitering
Hanneke Weitering
Contributing expert

Hanneke Weitering is a multimedia journalist in the Pacific Northwest reporting on the future of aviation at FutureFlight.aero and Aviation International News and was previously the Editor for Spaceflight and Astronomy news here at Space.com. As an editor with over 10 years of experience in science journalism she has previously written for Scholastic Classroom Magazines, MedPage Today and The Joint Institute for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After studying physics at the University of Tennessee in her hometown of Knoxville, she earned her graduate degree in Science, Health and Environmental Reporting (SHERP) from New York University. Hanneke joined the Space.com team in 2016 as a staff writer and producer, covering topics including spaceflight and astronomy. She currently lives in Seattle, home of the Space Needle, with her cat and two snakes. In her spare time, Hanneke enjoys exploring the Rocky Mountains, basking in nature and looking for dark skies to gaze at the cosmos. 

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