venera 9 ( meaning "venus 9"), manufacturer's designation: 4v-1 no. 660, was a soviet unmanned space mission to venus. it consisted of an orbiter and a lander. it was launched on june 8, 1975, at 02:38:00 utc and had a mass of . the orbiter was the first spacecraft to orbit venus, while the lander was the first to return images from the surface of another planet.