On this day, March 1, 1966, the Soviet spacecraft Venera-3 crash-landed on Venus. It was the first spacecraft in the world to touch the surface of another planet, an unprecedented feat. Never before had a space vehicle landed on another planet besides Earth.
On November 15, 1965, the Soviet launch vehicle Venera-3 was launched from Kazakhstan. Four months later, it collided with Venus, the second closest planet to the sun. Venera-3 was on a mission to measure Venus's atmosphere but ended up crash-landing on its surface without completing its mission.
Despite this, it was the first unmanned spacecraft to reach the surface of another planet. American spacecraft Mariner-2 had flown close enough to Venus four years earlier to take scientific measurements and discovered temperatures above 800 degrees Fahrenheit but never landed on the planet. Although Venera-3's mission failed, it reached the surface of Venus.
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A year later, in 1967, Venera-4 succeeded where Venera-3 did not. It successfully deployed scientific instruments such as thermometers, barometers, atmospheric density gauges, and gas analyzers into Venus’s atmosphere.
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Then, in 1970, Venera-7 became the first man-made spacecraft to achieve a smooth landing on Venus. It successfully sent pictures and data for 23 minutes before being destroyed by the planet's extremely high temperatures and atmospheric pressure.
