MOSCOW – Russia and the United States have agreed on a joint Venus exploration mission, Sputnik quoted Roscosmos space agency chief Dmitry Rogozin as saying.
“We agreed with the Americans on a joint mission to Venus,” Rogozin said on the Soloviev Live YouTube show yesterday.
Russia plans to send the Venera-D probe to Venus in November 2029. The mission was initially planned as a Russia-US venture.
Last year, however, Roscosmos said that the Venera-D mission was going to be an independent national project and was not expected to attract significant international cooperation.
Russia is also aiming to send a Venus exploration mission in June 2031, and another one in June 2034, in order to study the planet’s atmosphere and, possibly, collect some soil samples.
In June, a Nasa spokesperson told Sputnik that the US space agency was ready to discuss further plans for Venus exploration with Russia.
According to Nasa, the US is planning two missions to Venus with launches expected in the 2028-2030 timeframe.
Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry and Imaging consists of a probe that will descend into the Venus' shrouded atmosphere.
A second mission dubbed Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy will orbit the planet with a synthetic aperture radar able to penetrate clouds that hide the planet’s surface from astronomers on Earth. – Bernama, November 21, 2021
