Mission Type: Impact Launch Vehicle: 8K78 (no. L1-7) Launch
Site: Tyuratam (Baikonur Cosmodrome), NIIP-5 / launch site 1,
USSR Spacecraft Mass: c. 645 kg Spacecraft Instruments: 1)
three-component magnetometer; 2) variometer and 3) charged-
particle traps Deep Space Chronicle: A Chronology of Deep Space
and Planetary Probes 1958-2000, Monographs in Aerospace History
No. 24, by Asif A. Siddiqi National Space Science Data Center,
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/ This mission was the first attempt
to send a spacecraft to Venus. Original intentions had been to
send the 1V spacecraft to take pictures of the Venusian surface,
but this proved to be far too ambitious a goal. Engineers
instead downgraded the mission and used the 1VA spacecraft for a
simple Venus atmospheric entry. The 1VA was essentially a
modified 1M spacecraft used for Martian exploration. The
spacecraft contained a small globe containing various souvenirs
and medals commemorating the mission. This flight was also the
first occasion on which the Soviets u