Satellites

Payload

SPUTNIK 8

DecayedPayloadLEO

Venera 1, also known as Venera-1VA No.2 and occasionally in the West as Sputnik 8, was the first spacecraft to perform an interplanetary flight and the first to fly past Venus, as part of the Soviet Union's Venera programme. Launched in February 1961, it was intended as an impactor, but flew past Venus on 19 May of the same year; however, radio contact with the probe was lost before the flyby, resulting in returning only some data and only from interplanetary space.

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Launch

Launch date
February 12, 1961 at 12:34 AM UTC
Launch site
Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan
Launched by
Molniya 8K78
Operator
Soviet Space Program

Orbit

Orbit regime
LEO
Apoapsis
242 km
Periapsis
169 km
Inclination
65.01°
Orbital period
88.61 min

Spacecraft

Operator
Russia (CIS / former USSR)
Launch mass
600 kg

Identity

COSPAR (Int'l)
1961-003C
NORAD catalog №
77
Object type
Payload
Owner / operator
RussiaRussia (CIS / former USSR)
Status
Decayed
Decay / reentry
February 25, 1961

End of mission

Last active / ended
February 25, 1961
Time in service
13 days
Fate
Reentered Earth's atmosphere and was destroyed.
Final status
Decayed