When the Soviets sent a mission on one of the hottest dates in the Space Race
On this day in (engineering) history… October 22, 1975 - The Soviet unmanned space mission Venera 9 lands on Venus. A hot, overcast, though reasonably bright, October day. The sulphuric acid clouds are so thick the Sun casts no shadows. Don't worry about sulphuric acid rain because surface temperatures of 485°C (the hottest in the Solar System and easily hot enough to melt lead) evaporate it long before a drop hits the ground. All of this contained in an atmosphere thick enough to crush a submarine. This is Venus, where the Soviet Venera 9 probe is about to land. Cloud system on Venus, captured using ultra-violet observation. Source: Wikimedia Commons A hot planet in the Cold War During the Cold War, the Space Race became one of many substitutes for hot superpower confrontation…