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Mission
Kind: Planetary science including lander and atmospheric probe
State: successful
Place: Venus
Operator: Soviet Academy of Sciences
Date
Start:
Duration: ~2 days (balloon), 2 years, 1 month, 15 days (from launch to out of attitude control propellant)
Mission Ending
Last Contact: Jan. 30, 1987
Rocket
Rocket: Proton 8K82K
Kind: Soviet Academy of Sciences
Manufacturer: NPO Lavochkin
Mass: Spacecraft: 4,920 kg (10,850 lb)Balloon: 21.5 kg (47 lb)
Launch Site: Baikonur 200/39
Flyby
1º Flyby: Venus
2º Flyby: 1P/Halley
Orbit
Reference System: Geocentric
Lander
Place: Venus
Region: 7°30′N 177°42′E / 7.5°N 177.7°E / 7.5, 177.7 (Vega 1) (north of Aphrodite Terra)
Date: 03:02:54, June 11, 1985
Component: Vega 1 Descent Craft
Vega 1 (along with its twin Vega 2) is a Soviet space probe part of the Vega program. The spacecraft was a development of the earlier Venera craft. They were designed by Babakin Space Centre and constructed as 5VK by Lavochkin at Khimki. The name VeGa (ВеГа) combines the first two letters Russian words for Venus (Венера: "Venera") and Halley (Галлея: "Galleya"). The craft was powered by twin large solar panels and instruments included an antenna dish, cameras, spectrometer, infrared sounder, magnetometers (MISCHA), and plasma probes. The 4,920 kg craft was launched by a Proton 8K82K rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Tyuratam, Kazakh SSR. Both Vega 1 and 2 were three-axis stabilized spacecraft. The spacecraft were equipped with a dual bumper shield for dust protection from Halley's comet.
