NSSDC ID: 1981-106A
Venera 13 and 14 were identical spacecraft built to take advantage of the 1981 Venus launch opportunity and launched 5 days apart. The Venera 13 mission consisted of a bus (81-106A) and an attached descent craft (81-106D). After launch and a four month cruise to Venus, the descent vehicle separated and plunged into the Venus atmosphere on 1 March 1982. As it flew by Venus the bus acted as a data relay for the brief life of the descent vehicle, and then continued on into a heliocentric orbit. The bus was equipped with instrumentation including a gamma-ray spectrometer, retarding potential traps, UV grating monochromator, electron and proton spectrometers, gamma-ray burst detectors, solar wind plasma detectors, and two-frequency transmitters which made measurements before, during, and after the Venus flyby.
Launch Date: 1981-10-30
Launch Vehicle: Proton Booster Plus Upper Stage and Escape Stages
Launch Site: Tyuratam (Baikonur Cosmodrome), U.S.S.R
Data collections from Venera 13
Questions or comments about this spacecraft can be directed to: Dr. David R. Williams.
Name | Role | Original Affiliation | |
---|---|---|---|
Mr. Artem Ivankov | General Contact | Lavochkin Association | artem.ivankov@laspace.ru |
Harvey, B., The new Russian space programme from competition to collaboration, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, England, 1996.
Venera 13 Descent Craft/Lander
Venera 14 Orbiter
Venus Home Page
Venera Home Page
Venera lander images of the surface of Venus - and other Venus images