[
  {
    "slug": "akatsuki",
    "entry_kind": "mission",
    "name": "Akatsuki, IKAROS and Shin-en",
    "entity": "JAXA Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) for Akatsuki and IKAROS; the University Space Engineering Consortium (UNISEC) for Shin-en (UNITEC-1)",
    "type": "orbiter",
    "era": "radar-and-return",
    "outcome": "ended",
    "status": "Ended. JAXA lost contact with Akatsuki at the end of April 2024 and ended the mission on 18 September 2025. The silent spacecraft is thought to be still in orbit around Venus. JAXA ended IKAROS's operations on 15 May 2025, and Shin-en's team never heard it after its first day in May 2010.",
    "facts_checked": "2026-11-04",
    "has_coordinates": false,
    "source_count": 55,
    "native_source_count": 87,
    "page": "https://azmth.space/venus/missions/akatsuki"
  },
  {
    "slug": "atmosphere-of-venus",
    "entry_kind": "finding",
    "name": "The atmosphere of Venus",
    "entity": "The atmosphere of Venus, as measured by Soviet, American, European and Japanese spacecraft and by ground observers since 1761",
    "type": "topic",
    "era": "reference",
    "outcome": "reference",
    "status": "Reference page, sources checked 26 September 2026. The basics are well measured: carbon dioxide air, crushing pressure, about 464 °C at the ground and clouds of sulfuric acid. Still open: why the winds change speed, what darkens the clouds in ultraviolet light, where the low haze comes from, whether Venus has lightning and how its nitrogen is layered.",
    "facts_checked": "2026-09-26",
    "has_coordinates": false,
    "source_count": 44,
    "native_source_count": 22,
    "page": "https://azmth.space/venus/learn/atmosphere-of-venus"
  },
  {
    "slug": "china-and-venus",
    "entry_kind": "programme",
    "name": "China and Venus",
    "entity": "China: CAS National Space Science Center (VOICE proposal); CAS, CNSA and the China Manned Space Engineering Office (national space science plan naming a Venus atmosphere sample return); CNSA planetary exploration programme (Tianwen-4); Deep Space Exploration Laboratory (roadmap slides)",
    "type": "program",
    "era": "announced",
    "outcome": "planned",
    "status": "No Chinese spacecraft has gone to Venus yet. China's 2024 space science plan names a Venus atmosphere sample return for 2028 to 2035, and route studies for Tianwen-4, its Jupiter mission, pass Venus in April 2030.",
    "facts_checked": "2026-11-04",
    "has_coordinates": false,
    "source_count": 33,
    "native_source_count": 41,
    "page": "https://azmth.space/venus/missions/china-and-venus"
  },
  {
    "slug": "crewed-venus",
    "entry_kind": "programme",
    "name": "Crewed missions to Venus that never flew",
    "entity": "Soviet: Korolev's OKB-1, TsNIIMash and Chelomei's OKB-52. American: NASA's Marshall, Manned Spacecraft, Lewis and Langley centres with Bellcomm, Ford Aeronutronic, North American Aviation and Martin Marietta",
    "type": "program",
    "era": "never-flew",
    "outcome": "cancelled",
    "status": "Never flown. Crewed Venus flybys, orbiters and even a landing were planned in the Soviet Union and the United States from 1960, and floating cloud habitats later, but every plan stayed on paper.",
    "facts_checked": "2026-09-26",
    "has_coordinates": false,
    "source_count": 27,
    "native_source_count": 27,
    "page": "https://azmth.space/venus/missions/crewed-venus"
  },
  {
    "slug": "davinci",
    "entry_kind": "mission",
    "name": "DAVINCI",
    "entity": "NASA (Goddard Space Flight Center; carrier and entry system by Lockheed Martin Space)",
    "type": "atmospheric-probe",
    "era": "announced",
    "outcome": "in-development",
    "status": "In development. DAVINCI now aims to launch in late December 2030, a year earlier than planned, and to release its probe for the plunge through the atmosphere of Venus on 3 October 2032. Congress funded it for fiscal year 2026 after the White House proposed ending it; funding for 2027 is not yet decided.",
    "facts_checked": "2026-11-04",
    "has_coordinates": false,
    "source_count": 37,
    "native_source_count": 0,
    "page": "https://azmth.space/venus/missions/davinci"
  },
  {
    "slug": "envision",
    "entry_kind": "mission",
    "name": "EnVision",
    "entity": "European Space Agency (ESA), with Thales Alenia Space as prime contractor; NASA, which was to supply the VenSAR radar, is withdrawing its contribution, and ESA is developing a European radar, VeraSAR, in its place",
    "type": "orbiter",
    "era": "announced",
    "outcome": "in-development",
    "status": "In development. ESA's own pages give a November 2031 launch, while reports since September 2026 say it has moved to 2032, after NASA pulled out of supplying the main radar. Europe is developing its own radar, VeraSAR.",
    "facts_checked": "2026-11-04",
    "has_coordinates": false,
    "source_count": 46,
    "native_source_count": 15,
    "page": "https://azmth.space/venus/missions/envision"
  },
  {
    "slug": "imagined-venus",
    "entry_kind": "finding",
    "name": "The Venus we imagined",
    "entity": "Scientists, writers and film-makers who pictured Venus before spacecraft reached it (Svante Arrhenius, Donald Menzel and Fred Whipple, Fred Hoyle, the US Naval Research Laboratory radio astronomers, pulp and Soviet writers, Pavel Klushantsev), and the Chinese astronomical tradition of Taibai, Qiming and Changgeng",
    "type": "topic",
    "era": "reference",
    "outcome": "reference",
    "status": "Settled for the surface: radio telescopes from 1956, Mariner 2 in 1962 and the Venera 7 lander in 1970 replaced the imagined wet Venus with a dry planet at about 464 °C, under air pressure about 90 times Earth's. Whether Venus had oceans long ago is still argued.",
    "facts_checked": "2026-09-26",
    "has_coordinates": false,
    "source_count": 38,
    "native_source_count": 40,
    "page": "https://azmth.space/venus/learn/imagined-venus"
  },
  {
    "slug": "kosmos-482",
    "entry_kind": "mission",
    "name": "Kosmos 482",
    "entity": "Lavochkin design bureau (USSR); 2025 re-entry tracked by Roscosmos and TsNIIMash, ESA, EU SST and independent analysts",
    "type": "soft-lander",
    "era": "into-the-atmosphere",
    "outcome": "failure",
    "status": "Ended. Stranded in Earth orbit since 1972, the Venus lander fell back on 10 May 2025. Exactly where it came down is unknown, and no sighting or recovered piece has been reported.",
    "facts_checked": "2026-11-04",
    "has_coordinates": false,
    "source_count": 23,
    "native_source_count": 28,
    "page": "https://azmth.space/venus/missions/kosmos-482"
  },
  {
    "slug": "landing-on-venus",
    "entry_kind": "finding",
    "name": "Landing on Venus",
    "entity": "Soviet Venera and Vega landers (NPO Lavochkin, USSR Academy of Sciences) and the later studies of where they came down",
    "type": "topic",
    "era": "reference",
    "outcome": "reference",
    "status": "No lander has reached Venus since Vega 2 touched down on 15 June 1985 (checked 26 September 2026). All ten that sent data from the surface were Soviet, and even the best-located is pinned down only to a circle about 300 km wide on the radar map of Venus.",
    "facts_checked": "2026-09-26",
    "has_coordinates": false,
    "source_count": 44,
    "native_source_count": 31,
    "page": "https://azmth.space/venus/learn/landing-on-venus"
  },
  {
    "slug": "life-on-venus",
    "entry_kind": "finding",
    "name": "Life on Venus",
    "entity": "The phosphine claim team (Cardiff, Imperial College London, MIT), the independent groups who tested it, and the laboratories studying chemistry in sulfuric acid",
    "type": "topic",
    "era": "reference",
    "outcome": "reference",
    "status": "No life has been found on Venus. Phosphine, reported in 2020, is still claimed by its discoverers and disputed by other teams, a 2024 ammonia signal has yet to appear in a journal, and no probe built to test either gas has reached Venus.",
    "facts_checked": "2026-11-04",
    "has_coordinates": false,
    "source_count": 54,
    "native_source_count": 20,
    "page": "https://azmth.space/venus/learn/life-on-venus"
  },
  {
    "slug": "magellan",
    "entry_kind": "mission",
    "name": "Magellan",
    "entity": "NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory; spacecraft by Martin Marietta (Denver), radar by Hughes Aircraft",
    "type": "orbiter",
    "era": "radar-and-return",
    "outcome": "success",
    "status": "Ended. Contact was lost on 12 October 1994 during a planned last plunge into the upper atmosphere, and the orbiter is presumed to have burned up soon after. Its radar images still feed new research, including a 2026 study of a lava tube and a published debate over fresh lava flows.",
    "facts_checked": "2026-09-26",
    "has_coordinates": false,
    "source_count": 39,
    "native_source_count": 9,
    "page": "https://azmth.space/venus/missions/magellan"
  },
  {
    "slug": "mapping-venus",
    "entry_kind": "finding",
    "name": "Mapping Venus",
    "entity": "Radar astronomers and orbiter teams in the United States, the Soviet Union and Britain, and the International Astronomical Union's Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature",
    "type": "topic",
    "era": "reference",
    "outcome": "reference",
    "status": "Venus has 1,985 official place names in the International Astronomical Union's gazetteer (checked 4 November 2026). None has been added since 5 May 2023, and the name Skadi Mons was dropped on 17 December 2025 because there is no mountain at that spot.",
    "facts_checked": "2026-11-04",
    "has_coordinates": false,
    "source_count": 57,
    "native_source_count": 28,
    "page": "https://azmth.space/venus/learn/mapping-venus"
  },
  {
    "slug": "mariner-1-2",
    "entry_kind": "mission",
    "name": "Mariner 1 and Mariner 2",
    "entity": "NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Mariner A, B, 1 and 2); NASA with the US Air Force and Space Technology Laboratories (the 1959 probes and Pioneer 5)",
    "type": "flyby",
    "era": "first-attempts",
    "outcome": "success",
    "status": "Ended. Mariner 2 flew past Venus on 14 December 1962, was last heard from on 3 January 1963 and still circles the Sun. Mariner 1 was destroyed during launch on 22 July 1962. Mariner A, Mariner B and the 1959 Venus probes never went to Venus.",
    "facts_checked": "2026-11-05",
    "has_coordinates": false,
    "source_count": 23,
    "native_source_count": 2,
    "page": "https://azmth.space/venus/missions/mariner-1-2"
  },
  {
    "slug": "mariner-10",
    "entry_kind": "mission",
    "name": "Mariner 10 at Venus",
    "entity": "NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (spacecraft built by Boeing)",
    "type": "flyby",
    "era": "surface-years",
    "outcome": "success",
    "status": "Ended 24 March 1975, when the nitrogen for its pointing jets ran out. The Venus flyby of 5 February 1974 worked as planned: it returned 4,165 pictures and bent the spacecraft's path toward Mercury, which it passed three times.",
    "facts_checked": "2026-11-05",
    "has_coordinates": false,
    "source_count": 27,
    "native_source_count": 8,
    "page": "https://azmth.space/venus/missions/mariner-10"
  },
  {
    "slug": "mariner-5",
    "entry_kind": "mission",
    "name": "Mariner 5",
    "entity": "NASA / Jet Propulsion Laboratory",
    "type": "flyby",
    "era": "into-the-atmosphere",
    "outcome": "success",
    "status": "Ended. Mariner 5 sent its last data on 4 December 1967, and NASA closed the project on 5 November 1968. The spacecraft is still in orbit around the Sun.",
    "facts_checked": "2026-11-05",
    "has_coordinates": false,
    "source_count": 23,
    "native_source_count": 5,
    "page": "https://azmth.space/venus/missions/mariner-5"
  },
  {
    "slug": "oceans-and-greenhouse",
    "entry_kind": "finding",
    "name": "Did Venus have oceans?",
    "entity": "Planetary scientists and climate modellers (NASA GISS, University of Geneva, University of Cambridge, University of Tokyo and others)",
    "type": "topic",
    "era": "reference",
    "outcome": "reference",
    "status": "Still an open question. Some climate models give young Venus shallow oceans, others find its water never condensed, and no measurement has settled it. NASA's DAVINCI probe, now aiming to launch in late December 2030, is designed to test it.",
    "facts_checked": "2026-11-04",
    "has_coordinates": false,
    "source_count": 45,
    "native_source_count": 11,
    "page": "https://azmth.space/venus/learn/oceans-and-greenhouse"
  },
  {
    "slug": "pioneer-venus-multiprobe",
    "entry_kind": "mission",
    "name": "Pioneer Venus Multiprobe",
    "entity": "NASA (Ames Research Center; spacecraft built by Hughes Aircraft Company)",
    "type": "atmospheric-probe",
    "era": "surface-years",
    "outcome": "success",
    "status": "Ended on arrival, 9 December 1978. All four probes sent data down to the surface, and the Day Probe kept transmitting from the ground for 67 minutes. The carrier bus burned up high in the atmosphere.",
    "facts_checked": "2026-11-05",
    "has_coordinates": true,
    "source_count": 36,
    "native_source_count": 7,
    "page": "https://azmth.space/venus/missions/pioneer-venus-multiprobe"
  },
  {
    "slug": "pioneer-venus-orbiter",
    "entry_kind": "mission",
    "name": "Pioneer Venus Orbiter",
    "entity": "NASA Ames Research Center (spacecraft built by Hughes Aircraft Company); origins at NASA Goddard; proposed European half by ESRO",
    "type": "orbiter",
    "era": "surface-years",
    "outcome": "success",
    "status": "Ended. Pioneer Venus Orbiter worked in orbit around Venus from 4 December 1978 until its last signal reached Earth on 8 October 1992, and then burned up in the atmosphere. A European version, studied in 1972 and 1973, never flew.",
    "facts_checked": "2026-10-03",
    "has_coordinates": true,
    "source_count": 27,
    "native_source_count": 0,
    "page": "https://azmth.space/venus/missions/pioneer-venus-orbiter"
  },
  {
    "slug": "soviet-unflown-venus",
    "entry_kind": "programme",
    "name": "Soviet Venus missions that never flew",
    "entity": "NPO Lavochkin with IKI AN SSSR and VNIITransmash; the French space agency CNES on Venera-84 and Vesta",
    "type": "program",
    "era": "never-flew",
    "outcome": "cancelled",
    "status": "Never flown. The Russian Venus mission in development is [Venera-D](venera-d), an orbiter and lander whose draft design runs from 2026 to 2028 (checked 26 September 2026).",
    "facts_checked": "2026-09-26",
    "has_coordinates": false,
    "source_count": 20,
    "native_source_count": 31,
    "page": "https://azmth.space/venus/missions/soviet-unflown-venus"
  },
  {
    "slug": "surface-of-venus",
    "entry_kind": "finding",
    "name": "Pictures from the surface of Venus",
    "entity": "Soviet landers Venera 9, 10, 13 and 14 (NPO Lavochkin); cameras by A. S. Selivanov's team at NIIP (now Russian Space Systems); Groza-2 microphone by L. V. Ksanfomaliti (IKI)",
    "type": "topic",
    "era": "reference",
    "outcome": "reference",
    "status": "Four landers have sent pictures from the surface of Venus, all Soviet: Venera 9 and 10 in October 1975 and Venera 13 and 14 in March 1982. No camera has reached the ground since, and no sound recording from the surface exists.",
    "facts_checked": "2026-09-26",
    "has_coordinates": false,
    "source_count": 37,
    "native_source_count": 39,
    "page": "https://azmth.space/venus/learn/surface-of-venus"
  },
  {
    "slug": "transits-of-venus",
    "entry_kind": "finding",
    "name": "Transits of Venus",
    "entity": "The observers of the seven transits seen so far (1639 to 2012), from Jeremiah Horrocks and Mikhail Lomonosov to the eighteenth and nineteenth century expeditions, and in 2012 NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, the JAXA and NAOJ satellite Hinode and the Hubble Space Telescope",
    "type": "topic",
    "era": "reference",
    "outcome": "reference",
    "status": "Venus last crossed the face of the Sun on 5 and 6 June 2012. The next transit is on 10 to 11 December 2117 (UT), followed by 8 December 2125. Seven have been seen since 1639.",
    "facts_checked": "2026-09-26",
    "has_coordinates": false,
    "source_count": 39,
    "native_source_count": 26,
    "page": "https://azmth.space/venus/learn/transits-of-venus"
  },
  {
    "slug": "vega-1-2",
    "entry_kind": "mission",
    "name": "Vega 1 and Vega 2",
    "entity": "NPO Lavochkin and the Space Research Institute (IKI) of the USSR Academy of Sciences, with instruments from nine other countries (Soviet Union)",
    "type": "soft-lander",
    "era": "surface-years",
    "outcome": "success",
    "status": "Ended. The last sessions with Vega 1 and Vega 2 were held on 30 January and 24 March 1987. Both carriers remain in orbit around the Sun, and both landers lie on Rusalka Planitia, the Mermaid Plain (checked 26 September 2026).",
    "facts_checked": "2026-09-26",
    "has_coordinates": true,
    "source_count": 29,
    "native_source_count": 43,
    "page": "https://azmth.space/venus/missions/vega-1-2"
  },
  {
    "slug": "vega-balloons",
    "entry_kind": "mission",
    "name": "The Vega balloons",
    "entity": "USSR (NPO Lavochkin, IKI) with France (CNES), tracked by a 20-antenna international radio network",
    "type": "balloon",
    "era": "surface-years",
    "outcome": "success",
    "status": "Ended. Both balloons fell silent when their batteries ran down, Vega 1's on 13 June and Vega 2's on 17 June 1985, and where they drifted after that is unknown. Their measurements and tracks have been free to download from NASA's Planetary Data System since 2020 (checked 26 September 2026).",
    "facts_checked": "2026-09-26",
    "has_coordinates": true,
    "source_count": 28,
    "native_source_count": 20,
    "page": "https://azmth.space/venus/missions/vega-balloons"
  },
  {
    "slug": "venera-1",
    "entry_kind": "mission",
    "name": "Venera 1 and Tyazhely Sputnik",
    "entity": "OKB-1 (S. P. Korolev), USSR",
    "type": "flyby",
    "era": "first-attempts",
    "outcome": "failure",
    "status": "Both launches failed. The first probe never left Earth orbit and re-entered on 26 February 1961. Venera 1 has been silent since February 1961. It passed Venus unheard at about 100,000 km that May and went into orbit around the Sun.",
    "facts_checked": "2026-11-05",
    "has_coordinates": false,
    "source_count": 19,
    "native_source_count": 43,
    "page": "https://azmth.space/venus/missions/venera-1"
  },
  {
    "slug": "venera-11-12",
    "entry_kind": "mission",
    "name": "Venera 11 and Venera 12",
    "entity": "NPO Lavochkin and the USSR Academy of Sciences (Soviet Union), with the French SIGNE 2 gamma-ray burst detectors from CESR Toulouse under CNES",
    "type": "soft-lander",
    "era": "surface-years",
    "outcome": "partial",
    "status": "Ended. Both landers sent data from the surface in December 1978, but no pictures or soil analysis. The carrier buses flew on around the Sun and were last heard from on 1 February 1980 (Venera 11) and 18 April 1980 (Venera 12).",
    "facts_checked": "2026-10-08",
    "has_coordinates": true,
    "source_count": 34,
    "native_source_count": 26,
    "page": "https://azmth.space/venus/missions/venera-11-12"
  },
  {
    "slug": "venera-13-14",
    "entry_kind": "mission",
    "name": "Venera 13 and Venera 14",
    "entity": "NPO Lavochkin and the USSR Academy of Sciences (Soviet Union)",
    "type": "soft-lander",
    "era": "surface-years",
    "outcome": "success",
    "status": "Ended. The Venera 13 lander worked on the surface of Venus for 127 minutes on 1 March 1982, and Venera 14 for 57 minutes on 5 March. Their flyby carriers went on into orbit around the Sun and were last heard from in April 1983.",
    "facts_checked": "2026-09-26",
    "has_coordinates": true,
    "source_count": 33,
    "native_source_count": 52,
    "page": "https://azmth.space/venus/missions/venera-13-14"
  },
  {
    "slug": "venera-15-16",
    "entry_kind": "mission",
    "name": "Venera 15 and Venera 16",
    "entity": "NPO Lavochkin and the USSR Academy of Sciences (Soviet Union)",
    "type": "orbiter",
    "era": "surface-years",
    "outcome": "success",
    "status": "Ended. Venera 15 fell silent in January 1985 after it ran out of the nitrogen it used to point itself, and Venera 16 in June 1985 after it obeyed a command meant for Vega 1. Both remain listed in orbit around Venus in Jonathan McDowell's GCAT catalogue (checked 26 September 2026).",
    "facts_checked": "2026-09-26",
    "has_coordinates": false,
    "source_count": 41,
    "native_source_count": 51,
    "page": "https://azmth.space/venus/missions/venera-15-16"
  },
  {
    "slug": "venera-2-3",
    "entry_kind": "mission",
    "name": "Venera 2 and Venera 3",
    "entity": "OKB-1, Sergei Korolev's design bureau (today RKK Energia), USSR",
    "type": "flyby",
    "era": "first-attempts",
    "outcome": "partial",
    "status": "Ended in 1966. Venera 2 flew past Venus in silence on 27 February 1966 and went on into orbit around the Sun. Venera 3 crashed into Venus on 1 March 1966, two weeks after its radio failed. Kosmos 96 never left Earth orbit.",
    "facts_checked": "2026-11-03",
    "has_coordinates": false,
    "source_count": 22,
    "native_source_count": 45,
    "page": "https://azmth.space/venus/missions/venera-2-3"
  },
  {
    "slug": "venera-4",
    "entry_kind": "mission",
    "name": "Venera 4",
    "entity": "USSR: Lavochkin design bureau (chief designer Georgy Babakin), USSR Academy of Sciences",
    "type": "atmospheric-probe",
    "era": "into-the-atmosphere",
    "outcome": "success",
    "status": "Ended on 18 October 1967, when the capsule's signal was lost after 93 minutes under its parachute, 24 to 28 km above the surface. Its twin, Kosmos 167, never left Earth orbit.",
    "facts_checked": "2026-11-05",
    "has_coordinates": true,
    "source_count": 18,
    "native_source_count": 47,
    "page": "https://azmth.space/venus/missions/venera-4"
  },
  {
    "slug": "venera-5-6",
    "entry_kind": "mission",
    "name": "Venera 5 and Venera 6",
    "entity": "USSR: Lavochkin Machine Building Plant (now NPO Lavochkin), chief designer G. N. Babakin",
    "type": "atmospheric-probe",
    "era": "into-the-atmosphere",
    "outcome": "success",
    "status": "Ended on 16 and 17 May 1969. Each capsule sent about 50 minutes of data from under its parachute on the night side, then its signal was lost about 18 km above the ground when the pressure reached 27 atmospheres.",
    "facts_checked": "2026-11-05",
    "has_coordinates": true,
    "source_count": 24,
    "native_source_count": 40,
    "page": "https://azmth.space/venus/missions/venera-5-6"
  },
  {
    "slug": "venera-7",
    "entry_kind": "mission",
    "name": "Venera 7",
    "entity": "Lavochkin (USSR), chief designer G. N. Babakin",
    "type": "soft-lander",
    "era": "into-the-atmosphere",
    "outcome": "partial",
    "status": "Ended on 15 December 1970 with the last faint signal from the surface. The capsule lies where it landed in darkness, near 5 S, 351 E. Its twin, Kosmos 359, never left Earth orbit.",
    "facts_checked": "2026-11-05",
    "has_coordinates": true,
    "source_count": 18,
    "native_source_count": 40,
    "page": "https://azmth.space/venus/missions/venera-7"
  },
  {
    "slug": "venera-8",
    "entry_kind": "mission",
    "name": "Venera 8",
    "entity": "Lavochkin design bureau (USSR)",
    "type": "soft-lander",
    "era": "into-the-atmosphere",
    "outcome": "success",
    "status": "Ended 22 July 1972, after about 50 minutes of signals from the surface of Venus. The best estimate puts the lander within about 150 km of 10.7° S, 335.25° E, in eastern Vasilisa Regio.",
    "facts_checked": "2026-11-05",
    "has_coordinates": true,
    "source_count": 24,
    "native_source_count": 32,
    "page": "https://azmth.space/venus/missions/venera-8"
  },
  {
    "slug": "venera-9-10",
    "entry_kind": "mission",
    "name": "Venera 9 and Venera 10",
    "entity": "NPO Lavochkin and the USSR Academy of Sciences (Soviet Union)",
    "type": "soft-lander",
    "era": "surface-years",
    "outcome": "success",
    "status": "Ended. Both landers were still working when their orbiting relays flew out of range, after 53 and 65 minutes on 22 and 25 October 1975. The orbiters sent data into 1976 and remain listed in orbit around Venus in Jonathan McDowell's catalogue (checked 5 November 2026).",
    "facts_checked": "2026-11-05",
    "has_coordinates": true,
    "source_count": 25,
    "native_source_count": 36,
    "page": "https://azmth.space/venus/missions/venera-9-10"
  },
  {
    "slug": "venera-d",
    "entry_kind": "mission",
    "name": "Venera-D",
    "entity": "Roscosmos (customer), NPO Lavochkin (spacecraft developer) and IKI RAN (lead science institute); studied jointly with NASA from 2015 to 2021",
    "type": "orbiter",
    "era": "announced",
    "outcome": "in-development",
    "status": "In draft design, due to run from 2026 to 2028. Launch is planned for 2036.",
    "facts_checked": "2026-11-04",
    "has_coordinates": false,
    "source_count": 38,
    "native_source_count": 80,
    "page": "https://azmth.space/venus/missions/venera-d"
  },
  {
    "slug": "venus-concepts",
    "entry_kind": "programme",
    "name": "Landers, balloons and rovers on the drawing board",
    "entity": "NASA (JPL, Goddard, Glenn, Ames and the NIAC programme), ESA, the Association Aéronautique et Astronautique de France and Northrop Grumman",
    "type": "program",
    "era": "never-flew",
    "outcome": "cancelled",
    "status": "Never flown. No design on this page is funded to fly, though a few, such as the CANVAS rover, are still being studied. The hardware built so far has been tested only on Earth. NASA's 2027 budget request would close the small fund that develops Venus hardware; Congress has not yet decided.",
    "facts_checked": "2026-11-04",
    "has_coordinates": false,
    "source_count": 52,
    "native_source_count": 2,
    "page": "https://azmth.space/venus/missions/venus-concepts"
  },
  {
    "slug": "venus-express",
    "entry_kind": "mission",
    "name": "Venus Express",
    "entity": "European Space Agency (prime contractor EADS Astrium, Toulouse)",
    "type": "orbiter",
    "era": "radar-and-return",
    "outcome": "success",
    "status": "Ended. Venus Express lost contact on 28 November 2014, most likely because its propellant ran out, and ESA declared the mission over on 16 December 2014. A last, intermittent signal was heard on 19 January 2015.",
    "facts_checked": "2026-09-26",
    "has_coordinates": false,
    "source_count": 68,
    "native_source_count": 23,
    "page": "https://azmth.space/venus/missions/venus-express"
  },
  {
    "slug": "venus-flybys",
    "entry_kind": "programme",
    "name": "Passing visitors: every gravity-assist flyby of Venus",
    "entity": "NASA, ESA, JAXA, the Soviet Union (NPO Lavochkin) and the UAE Space Agency, among others",
    "type": "flyby",
    "era": "radar-and-return",
    "outcome": "success",
    "status": "Solar Orbiter is the next spacecraft due at Venus, passing about 948 km above the surface at 22:58 UTC on 24 December 2026. The next newcomer is the UAE's MBR Explorer, due to launch in early 2028 and swing past Venus on its way to the asteroid belt.",
    "facts_checked": "2026-11-04",
    "has_coordinates": false,
    "source_count": 68,
    "native_source_count": 31,
    "page": "https://azmth.space/venus/missions/venus-flybys"
  },
  {
    "slug": "venus-in-the-sky",
    "entry_kind": "finding",
    "name": "Venus in the sky",
    "entity": "Venus as seen from Earth, its companion asteroids, and the balloons, aircraft, rockets and Earth-orbiting telescopes that have observed it without leaving home",
    "type": "topic",
    "era": "reference",
    "outcome": "reference",
    "status": "Venus has been the morning star since it passed between Earth and the Sun on 24 October 2026. It rises in the east before dawn and grows brighter until late November. It has no moon; its companion asteroid Zoozve orbits the Sun.",
    "facts_checked": "2026-11-04",
    "has_coordinates": false,
    "source_count": 65,
    "native_source_count": 27,
    "page": "https://azmth.space/venus/learn/venus-in-the-sky"
  },
  {
    "slug": "venus-life-finder",
    "entry_kind": "mission",
    "name": "Rocket Lab and MIT: Venus Life Finder",
    "entity": "Rocket Lab (launcher, cruise spacecraft and entry probe) with an MIT-led science team under Sara Seager (instrument and science), heat shield from NASA Ames; follow-on Morning Star Missions led by MIT",
    "type": "atmospheric-probe",
    "era": "announced",
    "outcome": "in-development",
    "status": "In development, with no launch date yet. Its science lead says the probe waits for Rocket Lab's Neutron rocket, which Rocket Lab now expects to make its first flight in 2027.",
    "facts_checked": "2026-11-04",
    "has_coordinates": false,
    "source_count": 36,
    "native_source_count": 8,
    "page": "https://azmth.space/venus/missions/venus-life-finder"
  },
  {
    "slug": "venus-orbiter-mission",
    "entry_kind": "mission",
    "name": "ISRO Venus Orbiter Mission (Shukrayaan)",
    "entity": "Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Department of Space, Government of India; foreign instruments from the Swedish Institute of Space Physics (IRF) and the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IKI RAN)",
    "type": "orbiter",
    "era": "announced",
    "outcome": "in-development",
    "status": "In development: the design review is complete, and launch is planned for March 2028 on ISRO's LVM3 rocket.",
    "facts_checked": "2026-11-04",
    "has_coordinates": false,
    "source_count": 46,
    "native_source_count": 20,
    "page": "https://azmth.space/venus/missions/venus-orbiter-mission"
  },
  {
    "slug": "venus-proposals",
    "entry_kind": "programme",
    "name": "Venus missions that lost the competition",
    "entity": "Proposing teams in NASA's Discovery and New Frontiers competitions (JPL, NASA Goddard, NASA Glenn, LASP, Harvard, Arizona State, University of Alaska Fairbanks) and European teams led from Paris and Oxford with CNES, IKI and ISAS, proposing to ESA",
    "type": "program",
    "era": "never-flew",
    "outcome": "cancelled",
    "status": "None of these proposals flew as designed, though DAVINCI and VERITAS, turned down in 2017, won in revised form in June 2021. No Venus mission has won New Frontiers, NASA's larger competition, and NASA left Venus out of the draft for its next round, now expected in 2027.",
    "facts_checked": "2026-11-04",
    "has_coordinates": false,
    "source_count": 65,
    "native_source_count": 10,
    "page": "https://azmth.space/venus/missions/venus-proposals"
  },
  {
    "slug": "venus-time",
    "entry_kind": "finding",
    "name": "Venus time",
    "entity": "The rotation of Venus as measured by radar and spacecraft, and the IAU model built on it",
    "type": "topic",
    "era": "reference",
    "outcome": "reference",
    "status": "Venus turns backwards once every 243 Earth days, but sunrise to sunrise takes 116.75 Earth days. The official rotation value, Magellan's 243.0185 days from the early 1990s, was still in use on 26 September 2026, while radar from 2006 to 2020 found the length of a turn varying by about 20 minutes.",
    "facts_checked": "2026-09-26",
    "has_coordinates": false,
    "source_count": 32,
    "native_source_count": 18,
    "page": "https://azmth.space/venus/learn/venus-time"
  },
  {
    "slug": "veritas",
    "entry_kind": "mission",
    "name": "VERITAS",
    "entity": "NASA Discovery Program, led by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (principal investigator Suzanne Smrekar), spacecraft by Lockheed Martin; Germany (DLR) supplies the VEM instrument, Italy (ASI) telecom and radar hardware, France (CNES) Ka-band amplifiers and, with LESIA, VEM optics",
    "type": "orbiter",
    "era": "announced",
    "outcome": "in-development",
    "status": "In development. VERITAS now aims to launch in November 2032 and reach Venus in mid-2033, its team said in October 2026. It has 24.0 million dollars for the 2026 budget year, and Congress has not yet decided its money for 2027 (checked 4 November 2026).",
    "facts_checked": "2026-11-04",
    "has_coordinates": false,
    "source_count": 41,
    "native_source_count": 17,
    "page": "https://azmth.space/venus/missions/veritas"
  },
  {
    "slug": "volcanoes-on-venus",
    "entry_kind": "finding",
    "name": "Volcanoes on Venus",
    "entity": "Venus: its volcanoes, lava plains and tesserae, and the researchers searching Soviet, American, European and Japanese mission data for present-day eruptions",
    "type": "topic",
    "era": "reference",
    "outcome": "reference",
    "status": "Probably active today. Several kinds of evidence point to recent eruptions, and a 2025 review judged that together they strongly indicate a volcanically active Venus. No eruption has been seen as it happened, and two of the three changes spotted in old radar images have been disputed since April 2026 (checked 4 November 2026).",
    "facts_checked": "2026-11-04",
    "has_coordinates": false,
    "source_count": 63,
    "native_source_count": 37,
    "page": "https://azmth.space/venus/learn/volcanoes-on-venus"
  },
  {
    "slug": "what-we-left-at-venus",
    "entry_kind": "artefact",
    "name": "What we left at Venus",
    "entity": "USSR, United States, ESA and Japan (NPO Lavochkin, NASA, ESA, JAXA)",
    "type": "topic",
    "era": "reference",
    "outcome": "reference",
    "status": "No spacecraft is working at Venus. Akatsuki, the most recent arrival, fell silent in April 2024, and JAXA ended its mission on 18 September 2025. Jonathan McDowell's catalogue, updated 2 November 2026, lists 59 objects that ended on or in the planet and seven still circling it, none of them working.",
    "facts_checked": "2026-11-04",
    "has_coordinates": true,
    "source_count": 67,
    "native_source_count": 28,
    "page": "https://azmth.space/venus/learn/what-we-left-at-venus"
  },
  {
    "slug": "zond-1",
    "entry_kind": "mission",
    "name": "Zond 1 and the lost Soviet probes of 1962 to 1964",
    "entity": "OKB-1 (the design bureau of S. P. Korolev), USSR",
    "type": "flyby",
    "era": "first-attempts",
    "outcome": "failure",
    "status": "Ended in 1964. Zond 1 fell silent in late May and passed Venus without a word on 19 July; it remains in orbit around the Sun with its unused lander. It was the only one of seven Soviet Venus probes and test probes launched from 1962 to 1964 to leave Earth orbit.",
    "facts_checked": "2026-11-03",
    "has_coordinates": false,
    "source_count": 30,
    "native_source_count": 36,
    "page": "https://azmth.space/venus/missions/zond-1"
  }
]