Venera 10

Chronology

Mission timeline

1. June 14, 1975, 03:00:31 UTC

   Launch

   Launched on a Proton-K booster from Baikonur Cosmodrome

   The launch/orbital information page prints 1975-06-14T03:00:31Z and both master catalog pages give the same time, 03:00:31 UT. Both pages name the booster in their own text as a Proton-K while printing Proton Booster Plus Upper Stage and Escape Stages under Launch Vehicle.

   Earth
2. October 23, 1975

   Deployment

   Released the Venus descent craft

   The acquired histories agree on this release date. Exact release time and independent capsule state remain unavailable.

   Venus
3. October 25, 1975

   Landing

   Descent craft lands near Beta Regio

   The descent craft page records that the lander separated from the orbiter on 23 October and entered the Venus atmosphere at 01:02 UT on 25 October, and that the descent craft landed at 02:17 UT on 25 October at 16 N, 291 E near Beta Regio. Carried at day precision from the Decay Date of 1975-10-25 on the descent craft's own launch/orbital information page, because the sentences that print those times print no year and this catalog does not combine a time from one page with a date from another. The later NASA history labels the landing clock as Earth reception time. Conflicting time-zone and site values are retained in the source review; day precision is intentional.

   Venus
4. October 25, 1975

   Orbit insertion

   Orbiter enters Venus orbit

   The master catalog records that the orbiter performed two burns, one on 23 October and one on 25 October, and that the second put it into a 1,500 x 114,000 km altitude, 49.38-hour period orbit at an inclination of 29.5 degrees, later changed to 1651 x 113,923 km at 29.1 degrees. The launch/orbital information page's Venus orbiter row gives 29.500 degrees and a 49.40 hour period, and its epoch starts at 1975-10-25 00:00:00, a midnight placeholder rather than an observed time.

   Venus
5. October 25, 1975

   Milestone

   Television photography and an atmospheric profile returned from the surface

   The descent craft page records successful TV photography showing large pancake rocks with lava or other weathered rocks in between, a surface wind speed of 3.5 m/s, and an altitude/pressure/temperature profile of 42 km at 3.3 earth atmospheres and 158 C, 15 km at 37 and 363 C, and the surface at 92 and 465 C. As with Venera 9, the panoramic imaging system could only take a 180 degree image instead of the planned 360-degree panorama because one of the two covers failed to release. Carried at day precision from the Decay Date of 1975-10-25 on the descent craft's own launch/orbital information page, the same page the landing event takes its day from; the prose on the page this event describes prints no date of its own.

   Venus
6. Date unknown

   Milestone

   Two mid-course corrections en route to Venus

   Both pages record two trajectory corrections, on 21 June and 18 October. Carried without a timestamp because the sentences that print those days print no year.

7. Date unknown

   Mission end

   Lander relay ends, and the orbiter transmitter fails after three months

   The descent craft page records that it transmitted for 65 minutes after landing, until the orbiter was out of range to act as a relay. The master catalog records that after three months the orbiter's transmitter failed, ending the mission; it gives no date, so this event carries no timestamp.

   Venus

Mission architecture

Vehicles

• Venera 10 Orbiter · Orbiter

  Destinations: Venus

  • Venera 10 Descent Craft · Lander · completed

    Destinations: Venus