Mission Atlas
← Mission directory

Mission record

Venera 6

Also known as Venus 6, Venera6

U.S.S.R · Launched

Explore trajectory

Completed · Success

One of a pair of identical Soviet spacecraft launched five days apart in January 1969 and designed to make in-situ measurements as they descended through the Venusian atmosphere, measuring temperature, pressure and composition. The descent craft was released on 17 May 1969, 25,000 km from the planet, entered the nightside atmosphere and sent read-outs every 48 seconds for 51 minutes before ceasing operation due to the temperature and pressure. NSSDCA records that together the Venera 5 and 6 probe data allowed a more precise determination of the atmospheric composition.

Destinations
Launch vehicle
Modified SS-6 (Sapwood) with 2nd Generation Upper Stage + Escape Stage
Launch site
Tyuratam (Baikonur Cosmodrome), U.S.S.R
Countries
Soviet Union
Mission types
Atmospheric probe

Chronology

Mission timeline

  1. Launch

    Launched into Earth parking orbit and then from a Tyazheliy Sputnik towards Venus

    The launch/orbital information page prints 1969-01-10T05:52:00Z, recorded at minute precision because it prints a whole minute with zero seconds. That page and the two master catalog pages disagree on the launch time by eight seconds: both master pages print 05:51:52 UT. The record follows the launch/orbital information page, which is the page that publishes launch times for every other record in this segment. The two pages also disagree on the launch vehicle: Facts in Brief prints Modified SS-6 (Sapwood) with 2nd Generation Upper Stage + Escape Stage, while the descent craft page's own text says it was launched on a Molniya-M with a Blok VL upper stage.

    Earth

  2. Milestone

    Descent craft released and enters the nightside atmosphere

    Both pages record that the descent craft was released on 17 May 1969, 25,000 km from the planet. The entry itself is carried at day precision: the sentence that prints the entry time of 06:05 UT prints no date, and the day is taken from the Decay Date of 1969-05-17 on the launch/orbital information page.

    Venus

  3. Mission end

    Transmission ends; NSSDCA decay date 1969-05-17

    The descent craft sent read-outs every 48 seconds for 51 minutes and ceased operation due to the temperature and pressure effects. The two pages disagree on the altitude at which it stopped: the master catalog gives roughly 10 to 12 km, while the descent craft page gives roughly 18 km altitude and records the 10 to 12 km figure as what was initially reported. Both put it over 5 degrees S, 23 degrees E, and the descent craft page adds the conditions as 26 bar and 320 C. The launch/orbital information page prints 1969-05-17 under the heading Decay Date.

    Venus

  4. Milestone

    Mid-course maneuver

    Both pages record a mid-course maneuver on 16 March. Carried without a timestamp because the sentence that prints the day prints no year, unlike the Venera 5 pages, which print 14 March 1969 in full.

Mission architecture

Vehicles

  • Venera 6 · Spacecraft

    Destinations: Venus

    • Venera 6 Descent Craft · Probe

      Destinations: Venus

Trajectory record

Trajectory dataset not yet available

No verified trajectory dataset is committed for this mission, so Mission Atlas renders no path.

Provenance

Sources

Each source is listed once and labeled with the mission, event, trajectory, or destination/body context it supports.

Data verified through September 3, 2026