VeGa 2 Lander on Venus

The Vega 2 lander on Venus night side

VeGa 2 Lander on Venus (1985) - Bolstered by earlier successful Venera landings on the hostile surface of Venus, the Soviet Union undertook an even more ambitious investigation of that planet. The VeGa mission (named for Venera and Gallei --Venus and Halley) saw two spacecraft, each delivering improved landers to the surface as well as deploying atmosphere balloons. After delivering the balloons and landers, the two bus spacecraft traveled on to encounter Halley's Comet during its 1986 visit to the inner solar system.

The VeGa 2 lander is depicted on the night side of Venus, illuminated by a momentary flash of lightning.

Publication: Sky and Telescope

Artist's note: This painting was one of two pieces presented to Soviet planetary scientists at the 1986 Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (see "Venera 14 on Venus"). During the red-eye flight home from the Johnson Space Center I had the good fortune to spot Comet Halley low in the south-east before sunrise. It was pretty easy from thousands of feet up. I wasn't able to find it on subsequent mornings while on the ground, so that was to be my only glimpse of this most famous of cometary visitors. - JH

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NOTE: the watermarks seen on the above image do not appear on the prints.

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