One my Russian readers will probably already know about
Ten probes from the Venera series successfully landed on Venus and transmitted data from the surface, including the two, Vega program and Venera-Halley probes. In addition, thirteen Venera probes successfully transmitted data from the atmosphere of Venus.
Among the other results, probes of the series became the first man-made devices to enter the atmosphere of another planet (Venera 4 on October 18, 1967), to make a soft landing on another planet (Venera 7 on December 15, 1970), to return images from the planetary surface (Venera 9 on June 8, 1975), and to perform high-resolution radar mapping studies of Venus (Venera 15 on June 2, 1983). So, the entire series could be considered as highly successful.
Totally. Fucking. Awesome.
There was a British space programme, briefly. I've heard it said that it could have got to the Moon for a tenth of what NASA spent, with their throw-money-at-problems approach, but that it couldn't have done it for 1/200th of what NASA spent, which was its actual budget. Sic transit gloria Britannorum.
There is also an Indian space programme, of which I expect great things in coming decades.
Among the other results, probes of the series became the first man-made devices to enter the atmosphere of another planet (Venera 4 on October 18, 1967), to make a soft landing on another planet (Venera 7 on December 15, 1970), to return images from the planetary surface (Venera 9 on June 8, 1975), and to perform high-resolution radar mapping studies of Venus (Venera 15 on June 2, 1983). So, the entire series could be considered as highly successful.
Totally. Fucking. Awesome.
There was a British space programme, briefly. I've heard it said that it could have got to the Moon for a tenth of what NASA spent, with their throw-money-at-problems approach, but that it couldn't have done it for 1/200th of what NASA spent, which was its actual budget. Sic transit gloria Britannorum.
There is also an Indian space programme, of which I expect great things in coming decades.