Launch Success
Liftoff Time (GMT)
09:13:51
Friday December 21, 1984
Identical to Vega-1. 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. The lander recorded a pressure of 91atm and a temperature of 736K, and transmitted other information too. It transmitted from the surface for 56 minutes. The comet portion flew through the dust tail of the comet and took hundreds of pictures of the nucleus with various filters. Vega-2 was able to get higher resolution pictures than Vega 1 because there was less dust in the tail at the time.
Heliocentric Orbit
1 Payload
4,920 kilograms
Manufacturer
KhrunichevRocket
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
122nd
Mission
13th
Mission of 1984
1869th
Mission
99th
Mission of 1984
128th
Orbital launch attempt