Vega 1

Launch Success

Liftoff Time (GMT)

09:16:24

Saturday December 15, 1984

Mission Details

Vega 1

Wiki

A combined mission to Venus and Halley's comet. The whole spacecraft flew to Venus, the mothership got a gravity assist and flew on to Halley's comet while the Venus portion, consisting of a lander and a balloon, entered Venus's atmosphere. The two modules separated midflight and the lander went on to the surface while the balloon was inflated and reached a stable altitude between 53 and 54km. Due to excessive turbulence, some of the surface instruments were accidentally activated while still 20km above the surface. The comet portion flew through the dust tail of the comet and took hundreds of pictures of the nucleus with various filters.

Heliocentric Orbit

1 Payload

4,920 kilograms

Rocket

Retired
Proton-K/Block D-1

Active 1975 to 1989

Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center logo

Manufacturer

Khrunichev

Rocket

Height: 56.14m

Payload to Orbit

LEO: 19,000 kg

GTO: 9,000 kg

Liftoff Thrust

9,468 Kilonewtons

Fairing

Diameter: 3.9m

Height: 10.4m

Stages

4

Launch Site

Site 200/39

Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan

Fastest Turnaround

10 days 23 hours

Stats

Proton-K


121st

Mission

12th

Mission of 1984

Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center


1866th

Mission

96th

Mission of 1984

1984


125th

Orbital launch attempt