Venera 1

Venera 1

Mockup of the Venera 1 spacecraft
Mission type	Venus flyby
Operator	OKB-1
Harvard designation	1961 Gamma 1
COSPAR ID	1961-003A
SATCAT №	80
Mission duration	7 days
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft	1VA No.2
Manufacturer	OKB-1
Launch mass	6,424.0 kilograms (14,162.5 lb)
Dry mass	643.5 kilograms (1,419 lb)
Start of mission
Launch date	February 12, 1961, 00:34:36 (1961-02-12UTC00:34:36Z) UTC
Rocket	Molniya 8K78
Launch site	Baikonur 1/5
End of mission
Last contact	19 February 1961 (1961-02-20)
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Heliocentric
Eccentricity	0.173
Perihelion	1,019 AU
Apohelion	0,718 AU
Inclination	0.58°
Period	311 days
Flyby of Venus
Closest approach	19 May 1961
Distance	100,000 kilometres (62,000 mi)
Venera ← Tyazhely Sputnik Venera 2MV-1 No.1 →

Venera 1 (Russian: Венера-1 meaning Venus 1), also known as Venera-1VA No.2 and occasionally in the West as Sputnik 8 was the first spacecraft to fly past Venus, as part of the Soviet Union's Venera programme. Launched in February 1961, it flew past Venus on 19 May of the same year; however, radio contact with the probe was lost before the flyby, resulting in it returning no data.

Venera 1 was a 643.5-kilogram (1,419 lb) probe consisting of a cylindrical body 1.05 metres (3 ft 5 in) in diameter topped by a dome, totalling 2.035 metres (6 ft 8.1 in) in height. This was pressurized to 1.2 standard atmospheres (120 kPa) with dry nitrogen, with internal fans to maintain even distribution of heat. Two solar panels extended from the cylinder, charging a bank of silver-zinc batteries. A 2-metre parabolic wire-mesh antenna was designed to send data from Venus to Earth on a frequency of 922.8 MHz. A 2.4-metre antenna boom was used to transmit short-wave signals during the near-Earth phase of the mission. Semidirectional quadrupole antennas mounted on the solar panels provided routine telemetry and telecommand contact with Earth during the mission, on a circularly-polarized decimetre radio band.

The probe was equipped with scientific instruments including a flux-gate magnetometer attached to the antenna boom, two ion traps to measure solar wind, micrometeorite detectors, and Geiger counter tubes and a sodium iodide scintillator for measurement of cosmic radiation. An experiment attached to one solar panel measured temperatures of experimental coatings. Infrared and/or ultraviolet radiometers may have been included. The dome contained a KDU-414 engine used for mid-course corrections. Temperature control was achieved by motorized thermal shutters.

During most of its flight, Venera 1 was spin stabilized. It was the first spacecraft designed to perform mid-course corrections, by entering a mode of 3-axis stabilization, fixing on the Sun and the star Canopus. Had it reached Venus, it would have entered another mode of 3-axis stabilization, fixing on the Sun and Earth, and using for the first time a parabolic antenna to relay data.