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The Venera 7, launched by the Soviet Union, was the first spacecraft to ever land on another planet. The planet was Venus, and Venera 7 landed on December 15, 1970. Once it began to descend, it signaled video of the landing back to Earth. The atmospheric testing revealed that the atmosphere was 98% carbon dioxide. Unfortunately, the craft malfunctioned a few minutes after touching the planet's surface. The last signal sent back the temperature: 475 degrees Celsius.
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The Soviet Union's Mars 3, was the first satellite to land and signal back from Mars. It was launched on May 28, 1971. After orbiting the planet several times, Mars 3 released its lander craft on December 2, 1971. Once it achieved a soft landing on the alien planet, it sent a partial image of Mars's surface back to Earth. This was the first picture ever obtained from Mars. But after about 15 seconds, transmission between the spacecraft failed.
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The Mariner 9, launched by the US, was the first satellite to orbit another planet. That planet was Mars. Mariner 9 was launched on May 30, 1971. It went as close to Mars as only 930 miles away from the surface. Its mission was to map at least 70% of the planet's surface. Mariner 9 was also to study Mars's moons. The spacecraft was manufactured and operated by NASA. It completed its mission quite well and flew back to Earth on October 27, 1972.
Pioneer 10-NASA, was the first satellite to ever pass the asteroid belt, leave the inner solar system, touch the orbit of Neptune, and journey even deeper into space. This was a legendary accomplishment for the US during the space race. The launch was on March 2, 1972 and the mission lasted 30 years, 10 months, and 22 days. The journey of Pioneer 10 was unbelievable. When entering the outer solar system, it studied the asteroid belt with on-board instruments and signaled back photos. When flying by Jupiter, Pioneer 10 transmitted back around 500 photos of the planet. On June 13, 1983, the spacecraft crossed the orbit of Neptune. After traveling 12 billion kilometers away from Earth, NASA lost transmission with the craft and all connection and contact was cut off. Pioneer 10 kept going deeper and deeper into space. Recently, it was spotted to have been traveling 28,000 miles an hour, about 100 AU from Earth and approximately 271,000 AU from the nearest star outside our solar system, Proxima Centauri.
The US Mariner 10 was the first spacecraft to fly by Mercury. Mariner 10 was launched on November 3, 1973. The mission of Mariner 10 was to investigate Mercury and obtain information related to its atmosphere, environment, climate, surface, and so on... It was to examine Venus as well. With its two equipped cameras, Mariner 10 transmitted many pictures of Mercury back to Earth. After flying by once, it passed the Sun, circled around it, and drifted by Mercury a second time, farther away from the planet then before. The second time, it captured some long shots. During the third and final encounter with Mercury, Mariner 10 flew directly over its north pole, incredibly close to the planet. The mission ended on March 24, 1975. This mission discovered many things about Mercury and Venus: Venus has moving clouds and a thin, feeble magnetic field. Mercury has a weak atmosphere, composed mainly of helium. It even has a magnetic field and a core comprised of mainly iron.