USSR NATIONAL AFFAIRS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP69B00369R000100170009-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 10
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 13, 2004
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: October 19, 1967
• Content Type: REPORT

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U S S R N A T I O N A L A F F A I R S
19 October 1967
WORLD-WIDE ACCLAIM FOR SUCCESS OF VENUS-4
CPSU, Scientists' Congratulations
Moscow Domestic Service in Russian 1500 GMT 18 Oct 67 L
[Text] To the CPSU Central Committee, the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet, and
the USSR Council of Ministers:
The collectives of scientists, designers, engineers, technicians, and workers which
took part in creating and preparing the launch and flight of the automatic
interplanetary station Venus-4 are happy to report to our own Communist Party and the,
Soviet Government that for the glorious 50th anniversary of the Great October
Socialist Revolution yet another important task of the party and government has
been fulfilled,
For the first time in the history of interplanetary space research the Soviet
automatic station Venus-4, successfully launched on 12 June this year into a
heliocentric orbit, has reached the planet Venus and today, 18 October 1967, made a
smooth descent to its surfaced A scientific laboratory has been sent to Venus, which,
for the first time, has permitted research to be carried out In the very atmosphere
of the planet. Unique scientific data has been received.
A,~, all the' Soviet people, we are proud that the first automatic station to reach the
surface of Venus, as the first station to make a soft landing on the moon, was created
and launched in the Soviet Union, The flight of the automatic station Venus-4 has
solved one of the most complex technical tasks of interplanetary communications,
opening a new page in the conquest of the cosmos around the sun. We Who took part
in creating the automatic station devote this outstanding achievement of Soviet
science, in mastering interplanetary space, to the 50th anniversary of the Great
October Socialist Revolution. We assure the CPSU Central Committee and the Soviet
Government that the scientists, designers, engineers, technicians, and workers will
continue to devote all their efforts to the peaceful conquest of interplanetary space
for the glory of our socialist motherland and for the benefit of all mankind.
To the scientists, designers, engineers, technicians, and workers, to all collectives
and organizations which took part in creating and launching the automatic
interplanetary station 'Venus-4:
Dear comrades, today, 18 October 1967, for the first time in the. history of
cosmonautics the Soviet automatic interplanetary station Venus-4 landed a scientific
laboratory on the surface of Venus which successfully completed a complex of
scientific research into the atmosphere of the planet and its surface. A second
pennant with the insignia of the USSR has been delivered to Venus. The automatic
station Venus-4 entered the atmosphere of Venus, with its second cosmic velocity,
aid then, after aerodynamic breaking by a special parachute system, landed on the
surface of the planet and consequently completely completed '.the. program 'of cscidnvifie
research. The successful flight to the planet Venus by the automatic station and
the carrying out of most important scientific experiments.is a new, outstanding
achievement of Soviet science and technology, a most important contribution to world
science.
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i9 :ietober 1.967 CC 2 USSR ilATIORAL A'r,. AiRS
,The new victory in the ,osmos is a remarkable gift to the 50th anniversary of
the Great Ocr;obey Social st Revolution, clear proof of the flourishing of the
creative forces of the Soviet people, the growth in the might of our motherland,
and the advantages of socialism. All the Soviet people are proud that the
victory in the cosmos was achieved by the talents and labor of Soviet scientist,,
designers, engineers, technicians, and workers, who solved the modt complex
scientific and technical. problems to insure the unprecedented flight of the
automatic station to Venus. This great achievement in; the i yeatigation of :;the
planets of the solar system and the cosmos confirms again that our scientists,
designers, and workers are fulfilling, according to plan, the tasks set before
them by the 23d CPSU Congress.
The CPSU Central Comm.0,.bee, the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet, the
USSR Council of Ministers, and all the Soviet people fervently and heartily
congratulate the scientists, designers, engineers, techni.caians, workers, and
the collectives and organizations which took part in the plannin, creating,
launching, and completion of ?;he flight of the automatic station Venus-4, which
for the first time made a smooth descent to the surface of Venus.
Xs,i.gned) The CPSU Central. Committee; the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet;
and the USSR Council of Ministers.
Moscow Domestic Service in Russian 1530 GMT i8 Oct 67 L
[Review of PRAVDA spec'.al edition]
[Excerpt] The issue i devoted to h:he new outstanding achio?vements of Soviet
science. The paper frontpages the PASS announcement on the smooth descent of
Venus-4 on Venus. For the first time the world is hearing signa:..s fom another
planet. Valuable date has been received on the physical and chemica. properties
of Venus' atmosphere. One of the p:Lcturas, arried by the edition, :hr w the
,rculpritFB of the event, our new interplanetary si?ation Venus-4.
Alongside the picture, the edittion carries a. selection of first reactions,
It includes an interview with Cosmonaut Pavel Ru~manotwich Popovich and commentaries
by foreign scientists- Astonishing! Fantastici Judging by the data received,
we have recorded signals from the surface of Venus I, exclaimed the director
of Jodrell Bank, Prof' Bernard :Luve:l.l., speaking to a PRAIVDA correspondent.
It is obvious that Russia has scored another succe s--such i. the reaction
of U.S. space speciali.-stk . The landing of the .";:Mixon on Venus, they stress,
gives the Russians big advantages in the esplorafticn of space. The position
at present is such, they stress, that a wide f:cold of activities opens, before
the Russians in the field, of exploring Venus, where they have, in fact, no
competition.
Moscow 'PASS International. Service in Eogl ~is,h. 19'i8 GE`T' ;1.8 Oc _ 67 I
[Text] New York-U.S. space experts acknowledged today that the soft, landing
of Venus-4 on Venus was a tremendous scientific and technological feat.
administrator James Webb said that "to go from Sputnikml to Venus-4 in TO years
illustrates the powerful, base of technology being developed in the Soviet Union."
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October 1967 CC 3 USSR NATIONAL AFFAIRS
Webb added: a"The fact that this has been accomplished in connection with
the 50th anniversary of the Communist Revolution is intended to encourage
those in and out of the Soviet Union to believe that the use of rocket
technology to master and use the newly opened environment of space can become
a major:?factor in the balance of technical power among nations. In my view
this accomplishment will. convey the intended message."
Dr Edward Welsh, principal White House adviser on space programs, said that
the soft landing of Venus-4 indicates that the Soviet Union is "deeply
interested in a planetary program and gives it very high priority." The
Soviet Union, he declared, has "contributed very muct to what we know about
Venus."
Al Rossiter Jr, UPI space writer, writes that "the historic soft landing of a
Russian-built instrument package onVenus gives the Soviet Union at least a
six-year edge over the United States in planetary exploration." He declared
that the "success of.~Russi.ats Venus-4 probe will overshadow the less spectacular
results expected from America's Mariner-5 spacecraft, when it passes within 2,500
miles of Venus on Thursday."
[The Moscow Domestic Service in Russian at 1900 GMT 18 October adds that "U.S.
Vice President H. Humphrey, who is also chairman of the National Council
for Aeronautics and Space Exploration, stated in connection with the landing
of the Soviet automatic station on Venus: The treasure of mankind's knowledge
will be considerably enriched. Yet another step, a very important step, has
been taken into outer space."
Moscow TASS International Service in English 1607 GMT 18 Oct 67 L
[`.Text] Moscow- ,-The successful conclusion of the flight of the automatic
station Venus-4 is opening a new era of detailed exploration of planets of
the solar system, Doris Petrov, academic secretary of the department of
mechanics and guidance processes of the USSE Academy of Sciences, said in
a TASS interview, "After today's achievements, we are entitled to expect
new successes in the conquest of space."
This successful experiement was made possible by the successful solution of
two extremely complex problems. One of them was development of a-.reliable
guidance system and transmission-of command impulses from the earth which
insured the incredible accuracy of the landing. The second was development
of instruments which measured the parameters:)of'.,the"Venusian.A,tmosphore dire6tly
by physical methods.
Academician Petrov remarked that the information sent back by Venus-4 confirmed
to a considerable degree the information obtained by observations from the earth.
Specifically this concerns the planet's temperature, whose maximum reading
of 280 centigrade is close to the conjectured 300 degrees.
The information about the-pressure, temperature and chemical composition of the
Venusian atmosphere could be obtained only if the landing was very smooth,
Petrov said` On approaching Venus the automatic station had the escape
velocity which it was extremely difficult to reduce at such a distance from
the earth. [as received]
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9 October :1967 CC 4 USSR NATIONAL AFFAIRS
Popovich on Future Tests
Moscow TASS International Service in English 1254 GMT 18 Oct 67 L
[Text] Moscow--Cosmonaut Pavel Popovich said that the landing of the Soviet automatic
station on Venus today is "a new step toward the stars,"
"The experience of the first decade of space exploration enables us to say that man
will explore the space around the sun in the'lifetime of our contemporaries," Popovich
told a TASS correspondent. "No one :can :say -precisely just when 'the first man wi,11
fly'-to venus, but this will happen without a doubt," the cosmonaut said, "Man will
undoubtedly get into the,-distant space," Popovich said, He said that practical preparations
for this were recently discussed at the 18th International Astronautical Congress in
Belgrade, Yugoslavia,
Among the mysteries of Venus which have to be fathomed, Popovich mentioned, above all, the
nature of the substances it is made of andits internal structure, "And finally, one
of the most exciting questions is whether some life exists on Venus. All this will have
to be surveyed by cosmic devices which will be sent to"Venue;""-the cosmonaut said.
In August 1962, Pavel Popovich made 48 orbits around the earth in a Vostok-4 spacecraft.
Moscow TASS International Service in English 1952 GMT 18 Oct 67 L
[Text] Moscow--The landing of Venus-?4 supplied science with facts "which make us
believe it the power :of hypotheses :concerning' the planets of' the:,earth ?grovt," Prof
Dmitriy Martynov, director of the Shternberg Astronomical Institute, said in^a TASS
interview. "The unique information sent back by the station confirmed our theoretical
predictions concerning the temperature and atmospheric pressure on the surface of
Venus and the chemical composition of its atmosphere," he explained.
Martynov believes that "this experiment--will give a great boost to the wevelopment of
theory in the near future," It is a pressing task to produce persuasive hypotheses
explaining the temperature on the surface of Venus. "Until now many astronomers believed
that high temperature was associated with the-plariet's atmosphere," he said. "Now that
we know that it is the temperature of the surface itself, a new riddle has arisen,"
Moscow TASS International Service in English 0800 GMT 19 Oct 67 L
[Text] Moscow--The high reliability of Venus-4 was the primary task of our work, the
chief designer of the Soviet interplanetary station which soft-landed on the surface of
Venus on Wednesday said in an interview to a correspondent of the newspaper KOMSOMOLSKAIA
PRAVDA.- -
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All. instruments, units, and systems of the station were checked in the conditions
close to those in space. The testing of the Venus-11, backup were the most interest-
ing, said another maker of the station. The backup survived the "launching" and
the entire "flight." It made it possible to detect certain defects and remove them
before the real launching. After 1.2 June when the station was launched, the backup
made it possible to make a prognosis as to what would be happening to Venus-4 after
certain intervals of time. The backup is a precise replica of the station, only
it carries additional pick-ups which increase its "sensitivity."
The entirety of Soviet experience in launching interplanetary stations was
utilized to design this station. The main purpose of Venus-11 was to determine
the physical conditions of the atmosphere of Venus. At the same time, it had to
perform a series of in-flight observations. "We have been receiving scientific
information on space along the entire 9roadt to Venus," the chief designer said.
Venus-4 has delivered to the planet the second pennant, a star--shaped object with
the Soviet Union's state emblem on its one side, and the station's path, the
inscription "Venus-11" and date on the other. The first pennant was delivered to
the "morning star" by Venus-3 on 1 March 1966.
The builders of the station would like to believe that there is life on Venus,
although they hold different views on this score. "There is life on Venus maybe
in different forms unlike terrestrial ones," one of them, a woman, said. "Some
primitive forms, perhaps unicellular organisms, but nothing like civilization."
"There is life, undoubtedly, in other solar systems; but in our system we are
the only ones," said a third man.
The journalists asked those interviewed to forecast to journalists the year of the
first manned expedition to Venus. The chief designer believes that man will go
there in 1980. Other replies were: 1985, 1990, 1995,'and 2007.
More on Venus-4. .?Double '
Moscow Domestic Service in Russian 2000 GMT 18 Oct 67 L
[Head of KOMSOMOLSKAYA PRAVDA's science department Vladimir (Gubarev) talk]
[F cerpt] The chief designer of Venus-4 told us yesterday that probably the
most interesting aspect of the work with Venus-1E were the gists which took place
long before the launching of it and which are proceeding ;ow. Long before
12 Tune, the day when a space rocket put the Venus-4 st::_ion into interplanetary
traaj?ectory, another station was created,a double of Venus-4. The double was
placed in a special. chamber, in which space conditions which the real station
would meet on its way to Venus were created. The double has lived through the
launching and the whole flight. The experiment which took place today was fully
copied. In this way designers were able to check the equipment of the station
and the work of the whole complex. The main thing is that the earthly flight of the
Venus-4 double enabled us to establish any shortcomings and remove them long
before the real launching took place. After 12 June this work did not end; it
continued, sometimes lagging behind the real one and sometimes overtaking it.
In this way it gave us an opportunity to respond to what would happen to Venus.-4
at as given moment of time and to various phenomena it different stages.
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PRAVDA on Details of Venus-4
Moscow TASS International Service in English 1708 GMT 18 Oct 67 L
[Reportage from the plant where interplanetary stations are made]
[Text] Moscow--The scientific laboratory that was detached from the automatic
station Venus-4 had to enter dense layers of the atmosphere at the second cosmic
velocity, withstand. fantastic stresses, burn, but not to ashes, open a parachute,
land on water, if It exists on Venus, and not sink or land on rocks and not fall
to pieces.
A report from the plant where the interplanetary station Venus-4 was made is
published in today's special edition of PRAVDA. The scientific laboratory
landed today on the surface of Venus and measured the pressure, density,
temperature, and the chemical composition of the planet's atmosphere.
On earth the scientific laboratory was tested in a centrifuge. Its weight was
increased several hundred times over; tremendous loads weighed down on every
bolt and every wire. After this a team of assemblymen would carefully take off
the lid, the parachute concealed under it, and the white mirror of the directed
antenna and attentively inspected them to see if everything had withstood, here
on earth, the encounter with Venus.
The detachable apparatus is covered with a dark-caked layer--the sublimating
layer. This ;layer is to evaporate in the roaring flames when the apparatus
enters the Venusian atmosphere. The layer will burn out but it will also
protect the laboratory from temperature of several thousand degrees. The
designers of Venus-4 spent much time solving the problem of how to insure a
hundred percent guarantee that on landing on Venus the parabolical antenna
would point toward the earth. To prevent the apparatus from being overturned
by winds they resorted to a blasting off of the parachute system. What if the
station would land on its side? The designers distributed the payload in such
a way that the station would always regain its stand position.
Venus-4 also needed sugar. One of the designers told us that the station would
riot sink in water and even in benzine. But if the apparatus landed in some
lighter liquid environment, the sugar lock would spring into action. The lock
would melt and the spring, held back firmly by compressed sugar on land, would
uncoil. and push the antenna to the surface.
New super--light and super--strong metals and new optical instruments and
electronic logic units were used in the latest Venus probe.
Designers spent also much time on the system of thermal regulation in the
(:ompar.tments of the orbiting apparatus, the one which was to carry the scientific
laboratory to the upper layers of the Venusian. atmosphere and then shoot it in
t:1e direction of the planet, while burning to ashes in the atmosphere itself. A
definite temperature had to be maintained in the compartments of the orbiting
apparatus so that earth could maintain communications with it, control its
flight and, if the need arose, to help it. This was a. difficult task because
one side of the station was heated tremendously by the sun, while the other was
;ce-cold. A compact, simple and, what was most important, extremely reliable
system of ve?r,.Tilating the compartments was required. And such a system was
'levised,
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Designers also searched for something that would sharply decrease the amplitude
of the scientific laboratory's oscillations during its entry into the atmosphere,
The plant produced an original and simple dampener of oscillations.
Scientists had to solve also the problem of thermal insulation of the orbiting
apparatus, This insulation was to deflect sun rays to the maximum and at the'same
time bring down to the minimum the drain of warmth from the station itself. Otherwise,
everything would either burn or freeze. The correspondent was shown a broad tape
covered with a silvery foil, This tape does not waste warmth, does not absorb it
and preserves all of it much better than the eiderdown in sleeping bags, better than
the dog's fur used to line boots in the Arctic and Antarctica. Specialists say that
this material, especially developed for the space station, would make excellent
clothing for people who work in the coldest parts of our planet.
The paper publishes photographs of the scientific station descending on a parachute,
adjustment of the radio antennaes of Venus A, as well as the second pennant with a
gold Soviet coat of arms delivered to the surface of Venus.
IZVESTIYA on In-Flight Conditions
Moscow TASS International Service in English 1943 GMT 18 Oct 67
[Text] Moscow-,-Engineer A. Serov writes in IZV':ESTI A today that the data of the
functioning of the various systems in the Venus-4 automatic interplanetary station
will help design better space vehicles in the future. In developing Venus-4, the
designers used the valuable experience of such automatic interplanetary stations as
sonde, Venus-2, and Venus 3.
The most important states of the flight of Venus-4 were the course correction and
the actual landing. Course correction makes it possible to compensate the mistakes
inevitable in lauching a vehicle on a flight to another planet. The course
correction was an important task of the scientists and engineers controlling the
flight of Venus-4 along its interplanetary trajectory."
Considerable time had to be devoted to other problems too. During the flight
there were over a hundred communication periods with Venus-4. They were used to
check the functioning of on-board systems, receive information about the physical
conditions in the station's various compartments, measure trajectorial
parameters, and receive the first information about space sent back by the station.
The station's power supply system consisted of panels of solar elements and a buffer
chemical accumulator, At present this system is "the optimal for long-distance space
vehicles," the engineer writes, As the intensity of solar radiation is not constant--
it is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the sun--the regime
of the work of the solar elements had to be changed on the second month of flight,
The crucial stage of the flight came on the immediate approach to the planet, It was
important, Serov writes, that the communication session at this stage should start
at a particular moment and when the automatic interplanetary station was in a
particular spot relative to the planet Venus and the Earth,
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IC a conventional session may be shifted in time within. fairly broad limits, the
beginning of a close-to-the-planet session is striotly confined to a definite period
of time.
The author stresses that the information obtained by the station "will enable the p-lan-
ning of future programs of deep space probes with more confidence."
Moscow TASS International Service in English 1744 GMT 18 Oct 67 L
[Text] Moscow--There were 114 communication periods with the automatic inter-
planetary station Venus-4 before the final "talk" with it, the TASS correspondent
reports from the long-distance space communication center.
The sensitivity of the receiving antenna which made this contact possible is tremen-
dous, It can detect the energy of a lighted match at a, distance greater than that
between the earth and the moon. This receiving antenna at the long-distance space
communication center consists of eight parabolic cups. Each of them is 16 meters
in diameter. The entire antenna weighs about 1,500 tons. The accuracy with which
it has to be moved is staggering. A mistake of only one arc second would mean a miss
of 300 kilometers at the distance to Vei;~us--&0 million kilometers.
The end of the four-month journey approached and the time came for the scientific
estimates and engineering solutions to undergo their crucial test. Members of the
state commission, scientists and engineers--creators of the Venus-4 station--asserabled
at the command center. The control panel flashed with multicolored lights--blue
and green pulses on the screens of oscilographs and the red lights of relays.
At 0542 hours Moscow Time the signal of Venus-4 reached the antennae on. earth, The
near-planet communication session with the automatic station began. At 04';9 hours
[as received] tiny rocket engines, that are smaller than a human hand and whose
thrust is measured in grams, began to turn the station in such a way that it would
take a definite position in respect to the sun and the earth.
The authors of the orientation system worried the most, for all their calculations were
being checked. A huge rhombus signal appeared on the screen showing that the
station "saw" the earth and that the directional parabolic antenna had been switched
on. The intensity of the signal immediately jumped up 300 timescompared with that
received by the nondirectional antenna. The long distance space communication center
was flooded with information about the functioning of all systems of Venus-4 and
data about the space through which it was hurtling.
This was a busy time for the ballistics specialists. With the measurements at their
disposal, they had to determine the station's orbit with great accuracy. It should
be recalled that the principal astronomic unit, the distance from the earth to the
sun, is not yet accurately known. Estimates vary by hundreds of kilometers. When
the station was far fom Venu4 this did not matter. But just before the descent to
the surface of the planet the most accurate information was required.
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It was the Dopler effect that came to the assistance. It is known that the
greater the speed of an apparatus emitting radio signals, the greater the
displacement of the frequency of the signal. And this displacement can be used
to gage the speed and the stability of the flight.
The clock showed 0700 hours. The counters of the frequency adjustment system,
which changed the parameters of the receiving antenna all the time so as to keep
track of the change in the signal produced-by the increase in speed, ticked away
faster; the pull of 'Venus was making itself increasingly felt; the speed was
growing; it was only 15,000 kilometers to the planet. At 0725 hours Moscow Time
the center sent its last commando to switch on the programmed timing device,
The station became fully autonomous. It was to land on the mysterious planet
all by itself.
Excited, the scientists watched for the signal of the parabolic antennae to
disappear when the station would enter the atmosphere of Venus and detach the
scientific payload.
Some 400 to 500 kilometers remained to the planet. At that time scientific
information of immense value was already streaming from the station. All previous
achievements in the studies of Venus were surpassed. At 0734 hours the historic
event occurred. The signal of the parabolic antennae disappeared. A sphere
detached itself from the orbiting station and leaped into the unknown, into the
depths of Venusian atmosphere. Now everything depended on the reliability of
the station's automatic systems,
After the lid opened. and a parachute billowed in the skies of Venus, the envoy
of the earth began slowly to descend on the surface of the planet. Simultaneously,
antennae spread out and signal streamed toward the earth. The signal was
received very well, it was only five times weaker than the one transmitted by
the directional antennae. The blue beam of the oscillograph recorded information
which had so far been denied to astronomers. The radio signals carried to earth
information about the pressure, density, and temperature of the atmosphere of
Venus, the most mysterious planet of the solar system.
The Soviet automatic station Venus-4 was the first in the world to achieve
a smooth descent and landing on the surface of Venus.
Moscow TASS International Service in English. 0932 GMT 19 67 L
[Text] Moscow-"The transm ssionof information from the Soviet station Venus-4
is the greatest victory for science and engineering," said Dr Vladimir Siforov,
a prominent specialist on long distance communications. The scientist was
commenting at TASS request on the successful landing of Venus-4 on the mysterious
planet.
Dr Siforov said that the Soviet scientists who accomplished radio location of
Venus arrived at the conclusion that its surface consists of solid rocks whose
physical properties resemble those of the silicates of the earth.
But these and some other conclusions on the nature of the Venus surface drawn
on the basis of the radio location data'"call for checking which can be carried
out only with the help of automatic stations which will transmit information
from the surface of the planet."
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Reliable and effective transmission of information over great distances was
described by Vladimir Siforov as one of the biggest problems of space exploration.
He said that In the first space experiments, the range of space radio communication
was hundreds and thousands of kilometers, whereas in subsequent launchings it already
exceeded a hundred million. kilometers, In experiments carried out by the USSR
Academy of Sciences in locating Jupiter, radio signals sent from Earth and reflected
back, travelled about 1,2 billion kilometers. "The range of space radio communication
is steadily increasing," , the scientist said.
Breathtaking prospects for a still more effective system for transmitting information
from space are opening up with the application(?and) use of the methods and means
of quantum. electronics, specifically quantum. generators of optical. and other ranges
which make it possible to obtain extremely narrow beams.
Venusian Atmosphere
Moscow TASS International Service in English 1820 GMT 18 Oct 67 L
[Text] Moscow--Early in. the morning of 18 October the magnetometer of the Soviet
interplanetary station Venus-4 reported that; the station was approaching the planet.
The slight increase in the intensity of the magnetic field detected by the instrument
at the approaches to Venus was not subsequently confirmed and the question of the
existence and magnitude of the magnetic field around the planet is thus still to be
decided after a careful processing of the data teleraetered to earth.
Another sensation cif the day, according to the TASS correspondent at the c~>ordinatingm
computing center, was the news that immediately after separation the instruments
container began a rapid analysis of the principal characteristics of the Venusian
atmosphere. This period of scientific measurements of unique scientific importance
lasted one and a half hours.
According to preliminary data the Venusian atmosphere, according to instrument
readings, consists nearly completely of carbon dioxide. Instruments detected
oxygen within limits of 1.5 percent. No nitrogen was detected, while water vapors
were in insignificant quantities.
"An end to Verusian hypotheses," stated one of the Soviet scientists conducting this
experiment. He thus characterized the first data produced by the direct probing of the
Venusian atmosphere, There will be less fantasies how about the mysterious neighbor
of the earth," and not such a mysterious one after all after today, he added.
It was difficult task to develop an apparatus for landing on Venus that could cope with
the condition:, it could encounter on the planet according to the very contradictory
information available about it. Suffice to say that in some respects, as it turned
out today, its "endurance" was several times greater than actually required. This
applies specifically to its resistance to temperature.
A leading authority at; the coordinating-computing center said that the rapid increase
in temperature, as the station, dipped deeper and deeper into tht Venusian atmosphere,
did no4z in axiy way affect the station, and its standard of performance remained high
throughout the entire period darned for the analysis of the physical conditions in
the Venusian :,trnosphere. xr. the. 90 minutes of descent, the temperature outside the
station rose from 40 to 280 degrees centigrade.
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