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Mission record

Venera 4

Also known as Venus 4, Venera4

U.S.S.R · Launched

Explore trajectory

Completed · Partial success

A Soviet bus and descent craft launched in June 1967, designed with the announced scientific objective of in-situ studies of the atmosphere of Venus down to the surface. The descent craft entered the nightside Venusian atmosphere on 18 October 1967 and its instruments remained on for 93 minutes, returning 23 sets of readings until it reached an altitude of roughly 25 km. NSSDCA calls it the first probe to transmit data from the atmosphere of another planet, and records that it failed to reach the surface because the temperatures and pressures deep in the atmosphere were much higher than it was designed for.

Destinations
Launch vehicle
Modified SS-6 (Sapwood) with 2nd Generation Upper Stage + Escape Stage
Launch site
Tyuratam (Baikonur Cosmodrome), U.S.S.R
Countries
Soviet Union
Mission types
Atmospheric probe

Chronology

Mission timeline

  1. Launch

    Launched toward Venus

    The NASA chronology reports02:39:45UT; the NSSDCA orbit table rounds this to02:40. Reported clock precision is not an independently measured launch-time uncertainty.

    Earth

  2. Milestone

    Midcourse correction

    Both inspected mission histories date the course correction to July29. A delta-v vector was not acquired.

    Sun

  3. Milestone

    First transmission of data from the atmosphere of another planet

    The master catalog states that Venera 4 was the first probe to transmit data from the atmosphere of another planet, and the descent craft page states that it was the first probe to return data from the Venus atmosphere. Both wordings are quoted from NSSDCA rather than derived here. The probe measured an atmospheric composition of 90 - 95% carbon dioxide, and it was initially believed that it had reached the ground and that the measured temperature and pressure represented the surface values on Venus.

    Venus

  4. Mission end

    Transmission ends; NSSDCA decay date 1967-10-18

    The launch/orbital information page prints 1967-10-18 under the heading Decay Date, the day the probe entered the atmosphere and stopped transmitting after 93 minutes.

    Venus

  5. Milestone

    Descent craft separates and enters the nightside atmosphere

    Both pages record that the probe was released from the bus and entered the nightside Venusian atmosphere on October 18, 1967, at 04:34 UT. The main bus entered the atmosphere behind the probe but was not designed to survive entry.

    Venus

Mission architecture

Vehicles

  • Venera 4 carrier bus · Spacecraft

    Destinations: Venus

    • Venera 4 Descent Craft · Probe

      Destinations: Venus

Trajectory record

Trajectory dataset not yet available

Known dates and encounters do not uniquely determine a flight path. This mission’s sourced timeline is available above; no verified trajectory is currently published here.

What is needed to reconstruct this path?
  • A frame-qualified position and vector velocity at an epoch, or equivalent complete orbital elements.
  • Separate state histories and release epochs for the listed vehicles; a parent mission trajectory cannot be assigned to every component.
  • Finer event-time constraints where required by an orbital reconstruction; the stored day/month/year precision is retained.
  • Epoch-qualified cruise and encounter position plus vector velocity, or complete elements with frame and actual maneuvers.
  • Original observation clock convention, geographic frame and uncertainty for descent/surface constraints; rounded coordinates are not survey locations.
  • Measured spacecraft attitude and component mounting transforms; design pointing modes alone do not determine orientation.

Provenance

Sources

Each source is listed once and labeled with the mission, event, trajectory, or destination/body context it supports.

Data verified through September 14, 2026