Vega 1
Soviet probe to Venus and Halley's Comet.
Vega 1 was a Soviet space probe developed from the earlier Venera design, built by Lavochkin as part of the Vega program. Its name combines the first two letters of the Russian words for Venus and Halley. The spacecraft carried a descent module that deployed the first man-made aircraft to fly on another planet.
Quick Facts
- Names list
- Venera-Halley 1
- Operator
- Soviet space program
- Satcat
- 15432; 15858; 15859
- Spacecraft
- 5VK No. 901
- Manufacturer
- NPO Lavochkin
- Launch rocket
- Proton-K/D
- Launch site
- Baikonur 200/39
- Launch contractor
- Khrunichev
Facts from the source article.
Venus mission
The descent module reached Venus on 11 June 1985, two days after its release from the flyby probe. The 1500 kg spherical module, 240 cm in diameter, contained a surface lander and a balloon explorer. The flyby probe used Venus for a gravity assist and continued toward the comet. The lander was identical to those of Vega 2 and six earlier Venera missions. Its payload included an ultraviolet spectrometer, temperature and pressure sensors, a water concentration meter, a gas-phase chromatograph, an X-ray spectrometer, a mass spectrometer, and a surface sampling device. Because the landing occurred at night, no images were taken. Several instruments were developed with French scientists. The lander touched down in Rusalka Planitia north of Aphrodite Terra. Excessive turbulence activated some surface experiments 20 km above the surface; only the mass spectrometer returned data.
Halley mission
After the Venus encounter, the mothership used a gravity assist to intercept Halley's Comet. Images began returning on 4 March 1986 and helped pinpoint Giotto's close flyby. Early images showed two bright areas initially interpreted as a double nucleus but later identified as two jets. The nucleus appeared dark, and the infrared spectrometer measured a temperature of 300 to 400 K, much warmer than expected for an icy body, indicating a thin surface layer over ice. Vega 1 made its closest approach on 6 March at about 8889 km from the nucleus at 07:20:06 UT, taking over 500 pictures through different filters. Although battered by dust, no instruments were disabled. The three hours around closest approach were used for intensive data collection on nucleus dimensions, shape, temperature, surface properties, coma structure and dynamics, gas composition, dust composition and mass distribution, and cometary-solar wind interaction. The nucleus was about 14 km long with a rotation period of about 53 hours. The dust mass spectrometer detected material similar to carbonaceous chondrites and clathrate ice. After imaging sessions on 7 and 8 March 1986, Vega 1 headed into deep space. It ran out of attitude control propellant on 30 January 1987. Vega 1 remains in heliocentric orbit with perihelion 0.70 AU, aphelion 0.98 AU, eccentricity 0.17, inclination 2.3 degrees, and orbital period 281 days.
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