Beginning at the dawn of the Space Age in the late 1950s, the Soviets worked to design and construct a series of Venus probes. And for almost 30 years, they built and flew the interplanetary spacecraft as part of the Venera program — carrying out rather impressive feats, even by today’s standards.  Venera 1, the Continue reading "March 1, 1966: Venera 3 crashes into Venus" The post March 1, 1966: Venera 3 crashes into Venus appeared first on Astronomy Magazine .