Venus was first observed from space on December 14, 1962, when an unmanned U.S. spacecraft called Mariner 2 passed within 21,600 miles of the planet after traveling through space for 3½ months. It was the first of all the planets (with the exception of Earth) to be seen from space.
The first spacecraft to successfully land on Venus was the Soviet spaceship Venera 7, which reached the planet’s surface on December 15, 1970. Several spacecraft had gone near the surface prior to this date, and the Soviet Venera 3 had crashed into the planet in 1966.
