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How an American spacecraft exposed the Soviet Union's false 1967 Venus landing claim

Harry J. Kazianis

1h ago· 11 min readenNews

Summary

In October 1967, the Soviet Union falsely claimed its Venera 4 probe had successfully landed on Venus. In reality, the probe was crushed by the planet's immense atmospheric pressure at about 17 miles above the surface. The deception was exposed by an American Mariner 5 spacecraft that flew past Venus one day later, providing data that proved the surface conditions were far too extreme for Venera 4 to have survived. This revelation forced the Soviets to completely redesign their subsequent Venus probes to withstand the planet's crushing atmosphere and extreme temperatures.

Source

bskyHow an American spacecraft exposed the Soviet Union's false 1967 Venus landing claim19fortyfive.com

Key quotes

· 3 pulled

The claim was wrong. Venera 4 had been crushed by the weight of Venus's atmosphere at roughly 17 miles above the surface.

What exposed the error was not Soviet candor but an American spacecraft that flew past Venus one day later.

The surface was so hostile it forced the Soviets to rebuild every Venus probe that followed.

Snippet from the RSS feed

In October 1967 the Soviet Union announced that Venera 4 had landed on Venus. It hadn't — the probe was crushed 17 miles up, and an American spacecraft passing one day later proved it, revealing a surface so hostile it forced the Soviets to rebuild every

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