Венера-1: Кеңістікке алғашқы сапар және Венераға ұшқан алғашқы ғарыш кемесі

Soviet space probe launched in 1961; first spacecraft to fly by Venus

Venera 1 (Венера 1 meaning Venus 1), also known as Venera 1VA No.2 and occasionally in the West as Sputnik 8 was the first spacecraft to perform an interplanetary flight and the first to fly past Venus, as part of the Soviet Union's Venera programme. Launched in February 1961, it flew past Venus on 19 May of the same year; however, radio contact with the probe was lost before the flyby, resulting in it returning no data.

Venera 1 was a probe consisting of a cylindrical body in diameter topped by a dome, totalling in height. This was pressurized to with dry nitrogen, with internal fans to maintain even distribution of heat. Two solar panels extended from the cylinder, charging a bank of silver zinc batteries. A parabolic wire mesh antenna was designed to send data from Venus to Earth on a frequency of 922.8 MHz. A antenna boom was used to transmit short wave signals during the near Earth phase of the mission. Semidirectional quadrupole antennas mounted on the solar panels provided routine telemetry and telecommand contact with Earth during the mission, on a circularly polarized decimetre radio band. The probe was equipped with scientific instruments including a flux gate magnetometer attached to the antenna boom, two ion traps to measure solar wind, micrometeorite detectors, and Geiger counter tubes and a sodium iodide scintillator for measurement of cosmic radiation. An experiment attached to one solar panel measured temperatures of experimental coatings. Infrared and/or ultraviolet radiometers may have been included. The dome contained a KDU 414 engine used for mid course corrections. Temperature control was achieved by motorized thermal shutters. During most of its flight, Venera 1 was spin stabilized. It was the first spacecraft designed to perform mid course corrections, by entering a mode of 3 axis stabilization, fixing on the Sun and the star Canopus. Had it reached Venus, it would have entered another mode of 3 axis stabilization, fixing on the Sun and Earth, and using for the first time a parabolic antenna to relay data.