What the Soviet Union Really Found on Venus: Life or a Mistake?

Over a period of 30 years, the Soviet Union became obsessed with Venus. Between 1961 and 1984, they sent a staggering number of missions to this hostile planet. Missions that, for the most part, failed in catastrophic fashion. But with every failure came more determination, more ambition.

Venus is the brightest object in our night sky, shrouded in thick clouds, it’s a hellish world that burns at temperatures high enough to melt lead. Its atmosphere is a swirling storm of sulfuric acid with crushing pressure that would destroy most life as we know it. And yet the Soviets seemed determined to get a closer look.

The United States was busy focusing on the Moon and Mars, but the Soviet Union set its sights on something far more unimaginable and far-fetched. And to those who found out about the highly secret space program, it was deemed ‘mission impossible’.

So why would anyone choose Venus as a world to explore? What drove them to spend so much time, energy, and resources on a fiery world that seemed so utterly inhospitable to human life?