Venera 9 spacecraft on Venus, illustration - stock illustration

Artwork of the Venera 9 spacecraft on the surface of Venus. The Venera probes were a series of ten successful missions sent to Venus by the Soviet Union in the 1970s. Venera 9 was launched on 8 June 1975. It arrived in Venus orbit on 20 October and, two days later, dispatched the Venera 9 lander, shown here. It made history as the first man-made object to return images from the surface of another planet.