The first spacecraft attempted to discover Venus was the Sputnik 7 by the Soviet Union in 1961. But it failed to launch the Venera 1 probe to land on the planet (NASA, 2017). The failure was caused by a defective power supply to the guidance system of the spacecraft whereby, the DC transformer used was not designed to work in a vacuum surrounding (NASA, 2017). But it did not stop scientist to further explore Venus. Amongst the numerous missions made ever since the launched of Sputnik 7, there were several explorations marked as proud moments for human race.
The Mariner 2 flyby mission proved to be the first successful spacecraft to encounter another planet in 1962 and it was also the proudest achievement for NASA and the United States to actually gain their first 'first in space' after the Soviet had claimed most of the world’s big firsts in space exploration (SPACE.com, 2012). Mariner 2 was a backup for Mariner 1 that failed just after its launch to Venus 36 days before (NASA, 2017). It flew past Venus and gathered a trove of data on the atmosphere and surface of Venus throughout a
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It was recognized for its achievement to ultimately become the first Venus lander to land on another planet and the first probe to send data from the Venusian surface on 15 December 1970 (Malik, 2015). Venera 7 was specifically designed to penetrate the atmosphere of Venus but did not land smoothly because the probe’s parachute had been ripped and collapsed when descended, leaving Venera 7 to free fall before it crashed on Venus surface (Malik, 2015). Despite being survived for only a few brief minutes, it did send at least some information to further study the surface of the second planet from the Sun. The temperature sensor on the probe had revealed a stable reading of 475C, 2.5 meters per second of wind speed with an atmospheric pressure of 92 bar (Malik,