The Explorers' Club, № MIX

Operation AXIOM: The Space Race—The 50th Anniversary of Mariner 10, Part II
5 February 1974: The Mariner 10 probe flew by Venus, approaching to within 3,584 miles; it was the first mission to broadcast to Earth images of Venus, returning 4,165 photographs; infrared radiometry confirmed temperature inversions in Venus's atmosphere & ultraviolet photography revealed details of the cloud layers; Venus's gravity changed Mariner 10's heliocentric orbit to approach Mercury closely.

Semper exploro.

The Explorers' Club, № CMLXXXIX

Operation AXIOM: The Space Race—The 50th Anniversary of Mariner 10, Part I
3 November 1973: The Mariner 10 probe lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station atop an Atlas-Centaur rocket, bound for flybys of Venus & Mercury; the probe was hardened against the intense solar radiation near Mercury with a sunshade, thermal blankets, & adjustable tilting solar panels; instruments included cameras, spectrometers, magnetometers, & plasma detectors.

Semper exploro.

The Explorers' Club, № CMXX

Operation AXIOM: The Space Race—The 60th Anniversary of Mariner 2, Part II
14 December 1962: Mariner 2, A.K.A. Mariner-Venus 1962, flew within 22,000 miles of Venus, the first spacecraft to encounter another planet; microwave & infrared radiometry found little variation in surface temperature between the light & dark sides of Venus; magnetometry indicated that if Venus has a magnetic field (it does), it must be weak, less than one-tenth as strong as the Earth's (it is).

Semper exploro.

The Explorers' Club, № CMI

Operation AXIOM: The Space Race—The 60th Anniversary of Mariner 2, Part I
27 August 1962: Mariner 2, A.K.A. Mariner-Venus 1962, lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station atop an Atlas-Agena rocket; based on the Ranger probes & exactly the same as the lost Mariner 1, Mariner 2 survived an unexpected roll by the Atlas during ascent & was set on course to rendezvous with Venus; instruments included magnometers & infrared & microwave radiometers.

Semper exploro.

The Explorers' Club, № DCCCXCIV

Operation AXIOM: The Space Race—The 60th Anniversary of Mariner 1
22 July 1962: Mariner 1, the first in a series of robotic probes to study the inner planets, lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station atop an Atlas-Agena rocket; Mariner 1 was based on the same frame as the Ranger probes & intended for a Venus flyby, but the Atlas went off course & was destroyed by range safety, six seconds before staging, lest it threaten Atlantic Ocean shipping lanes.

Semper exploro.

The Explorers' Club, № DCCXCI

Operation AXIOM: The Space Race—The 50th Anniversary of Venera 7
15 December 1970: The Venera 7 probe landed on Venus, the first probe to land on an alien planet; the probe transmitted data for fifty-three minutes inside the atmosphere, including twenty minutes on the planet's surface following a hard landing caused by partial parachute failure; the probe lifted off from the Kazakh S.S.R.'s Baikonur Cosmodrome atop a Molniya 8K78M rocket on 17 August.

Semper exploro.