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All posts tagged "Soviet Union"

Soviet Union Mars Probe Cold War Soviet Union Mars Probe Cold War

Space and Technology

On March 12, 1974 a Soviet probe named Mars 6 fell through the Martian atmosphere at 12,500-mph exactly as designed, radioing home the first direct measurements ever made inside another planet’s air — and then, at the precise moment it should have touched down, the signal died, undone not by the landing but by transistors that had quietly decayed during seven months in deep space.

Mars 6 is one of the strangest missions of the Cold War space race. On March 12, 1974, the Soviet lander entered the Martian...

June 26, 2026
Apollo 11 Command Module 19FortyFive Original Photo from the Smithsonian Apollo 11 Command Module 19FortyFive Original Photo from the Smithsonian

Space and Technology

While Armstrong and Aldrin walked on the Moon in July 1969, a Soviet robot was already circling overhead, racing to drill the lunar surface and rush its own samples back to Earth before Apollo 11 could splash down — until it crashed into a mountainside in Mare Crisium with the whole secret race nearly unknown to the public.

The story of Luna 15 is one of the great "what ifs" of the Space Race, and one most Americans have never heard. While...

June 26, 2026
Lander Crashing on Mars Lander Crashing on Mars

Space and Technology

In October 2016 a European spacecraft had almost landed on Mars, surviving the heat, the parachute, and the radar, when its sensor was overwhelmed for barely a second — just long enough for the computer to decide it was already on the ground, shut off its engines, and drop the lander 2.3 miles onto the surface at 335 miles an hour.

In October 2016 Europe's Schiaparelli probe had nearly landed on Mars — surviving entry, parachute, and radar — when a sensor was overwhelmed for...

June 26, 2026
Mars USSR Rover Landing Mars USSR Rover Landing

Space and Technology

On November 27, 1971 the Soviet Mars 2 became the first human-made object ever to reach the surface of Mars — but it arrived by crashing, its landing wrecked by one of the largest dust storms the planet has ever produced, carrying a tiny tethered rover on skis that would have driven on Mars 25 years before NASA’s first, had it survived.

On November 27, 1971, the Soviet Mars 2 became the first human-made object ever to reach the surface of Mars. It got there the...

June 26, 2026
Soviet Probe Crashing on Venus Soviet Probe Crashing on Venus

Uncategorized

In December 1978 the Soviet Union dropped two probes into the clouds of Venus carrying an instrument named “Thunderstorm,” built to find out whether the planet had lightning — and nearly 50 years later, the data those landers radioed back is still the best evidence anyone has, because every spacecraft sent since has failed to settle whether Venus storms at all.

When the Soviet Union sent two probes plunging into the atmosphere of Venus in December 1978, they carried an instrument named "Groza," the Russian...

June 25, 2026
Venus USSR Probe Venus USSR Probe

Uncategorized

The Soviet Union launched nearly 30 spacecraft at Venus and became the only nation ever to land on its surface and send back pictures — color photographs of a scorched volcanic plain under a yellow-green sky, shot in the few dozen minutes before the heat and pressure destroyed every probe that took them.

Exploring Venus is extremely challenging. A landing probe or lander must withstand crushing pressure, with atmospheric pressure roughly 90 times Earth’s, equivalent to being...

June 24, 2026

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