Pioneer Venus Orbiter

The Pioneer Orbiter of Venus was launched on May 20, 1978. It entered an orbit around Venus in December of that same year. Its primary objectives were to investigate the solar wind in the Venusian environment, use radar imaging to map Venus' surface and study the characteristics of the Venusian upper atmosphere and ionosphere. Most of the Orbiter instruments were still working when the probe entered the Venusian atmosphere in October of 1992.

All spacecraft images courtesy NASA
© The Children's Museum of Indianapolis, 1999