Venera 14

Chronology

Mission timeline

1. November 4, 1981, 05:31 UTC

   Launch

   Launched on a Proton-K booster from Baikonur Cosmodrome

   The launch/orbital information page prints 1981-11-04T05:31:00Z, recorded at minute precision because it prints a whole minute with zero seconds, and both master catalog pages give the same time. The agencies value follows this record's own master catalog page, which prints Funding Agency Unknown (U.S.S.R); the descent craft page for the same mission prints Funding Agency Soviet Academy of Sciences (U.S.S.R), and the disagreement is recorded rather than resolved.

   Earth
2. November 14, 1981

   Milestone

   First mid-course correction

   THE TWO PAGES DISAGREE ON HOW MANY CORRECTIONS THERE WERE. The flight platform page records two mid-course corrections, on 14 November 1981 and 25 February 1982. The descent craft page records that an error was made in the first mid-course correction, on 14 November 1981, necessitating two additional manoeuvres on 23 November 1981 and 25 February 1982, which is three. Recorded rather than resolved.

3. February 25, 1982

   Milestone

   Final mid-course correction before Venus

   Both pages record a correction on 25 February 1982, printed as a full date.

4. March 3, 1982

   Deployment

   Descent craft separates from the carrier bus

   The flight platform page records that the descent module separated on 3 March 1982, printed as a full date.

   Venus
5. March 5, 1982

   Landing

   Lands at 13 deg 15 min S by 310 E near Phoebe Regio

   The descent craft page records that a parachute was deployed at an altitude of about 63 km, was released at 47 km with simple airbraking the rest of the way, and that Venera 14 landed at 07:00:10 UT about 950 km southwest of Venera 13 near the eastern flank of Phoebe Regio at 13 deg 15 min S by 310 E on a basaltic plain. Carried at day precision from the Decay Date of 1982-03-05 on the descent craft's own launch/orbital information page, because the sentence that prints 07:00:10 UT prints no date beside it and the descent craft page dates the atmospheric plunge only as two days after separation. March5 is retained from the current orbit record and the component chronology of March3 release followed by entry two days later. The NASA history instead saysMarch3; this source conflict remains open.

   Venus
6. March 5, 1982

   Milestone

   Surface sample analysed and three cloud layers identified

   The descent craft page records that a mechanical drilling arm obtained a sample whose composition, determined by the X-ray fluorescence spectrometer, was similar to terrestrial oceanic tholeiitic basalts; that the seismometer detected two events, although these may have been associated with the lander operations; that the nephelometer identified three distinct cloud layers; and that the acoustic detector returned sounds of the spacecraft operations and background wind. Carried at day precision from the Decay Date of 1982-03-05 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. March5 is retained from the current orbit record and the component chronology of March3 release followed by entry two days later. The NASA history instead saysMarch3; this source conflict remains open.

   Venus
7. March 5, 1982

   Flyby

   Carrier bus flies by Venus and relays the descent craft's data

   The flight platform page records that as it flew by Venus with a closest approach of 36,000 km, the flight platform acted as a data relay for the brief life of the descent module, and then continued on into a heliocentric orbit. Recorded at day precision because the launch/orbital information page's flyby row prints a closest approach time of 1982-03-05 00:00:00, a midnight placeholder rather than an observed time, and a periapsis of 0.00. March5 is retained from the current orbit record and the component chronology of March3 release followed by entry two days later. The NASA history instead saysMarch3; this source conflict remains open.

   Venus
8. November 14, 1982

   Milestone

   Engine firing for Vega engineering work

   The carrier performed an engineering maneuver for the subsequent Vega missions. No vector is supplied.

   Sun
9. April 9, 1983

   Mission end

   Last interplanetary data from the flight platform

   The descent craft page records that the lander survived for 57 minutes against a planned design life of 32 minutes, in an environment with a temperature of 470 degrees C and a pressure of 94 Earth atmospheres. The flight platform page records that the engine was fired on 14 November 1982 as a test to provide engineering data for the upcoming flyby of Comet Halley by the Vega spacecraft, and that the platform transmitted data from interplanetary space until 9 April 1983.

Mission architecture

Vehicles

• Venera 14 Flight Platform · Spacecraft

  Destinations: Venus

  • Venera 14 Descent Craft · Lander · completed

    Destinations: Venus