Pioneer Venus Orbiter |
|
| Operator | Ames Research Center - NASA |
|---|---|
| Mission type | Orbiter |
| Satellite of | Venus |
| Orbital insertion date | December 4, 1978 |
| Launch date | May 20, 1978 |
| Launch vehicle | Atlas-Centaur |
| Mission duration | May 20, 1978, through August, 1992 |
| Orbital decay | August, 1992 |
| COSPAR ID | 1978-051A |
| Homepage | National Space Science Data Center (NASA) |
| Mass | 517 kg |
| Power | 312 watts |
| Orbital elements | |
| Eccentricity | .842 |
| Inclination | 105° |
| Apoapsis | 1.03 RV |
| Periapsis | 12.01 RV |
| Orbital period | 24 hours |
Pioneer Venus Orbiter or Pioneer Venus 1 was inserted into an elliptical orbit around Venus on December 4, 1978. The Orbiter was a flat cylinder, 2.5 m in diameter and 1.2 m high. All instruments and spacecraft subsystems were mounted on the forward end of the cylinder, except the magnetometer, which was at the end of a 4.7 m boom. A solar array extended around the circumference of the cylinder. A 1.09 m despun dish antenna provided S and X band communication with Earth. It was manufactured by Hughes Aircraft Company.
Read more about this topic: Pioneer Venus Project
Famous quotes containing the words pioneer and/or venus:
“New pioneer of days and ways, be gone.
Hunt out your own or make your own alone.
Go down the street.”
—Gwendolyn Brooks (b. 1917)
“and Venus among the fishes skips and is a she-dolphin
she is the gay, delighted porpoise sporting with love and the sea
she is the female tunny-fish, round and happy among the males
and dense with happy blood, dark rainbow bliss in the sea.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)