1962: Mariner 2 passes to within 21,000 miles of Venus and begins transmitting data back to Earth, making it the first successful interplanetary spacecraft.
The spacecraft was the second in NASA's Mariner series, a program designed for conducting planetary exploration by gathering as much data as possible in the course of a carefully choreographed flyby. Mariner 1 failed shortly after launch on July 22, 1962, when its rocket veered off course and the craft was deliberately destroyed. Mariner 2, launched a month later at Cape Canaveral atop an identical Atlas-Agena rocket, took three-and-a-half months to reach Venus. During its voyage to Earth's closest neighbor, Mariner 2 conducted experiments to measure the density and velocity of the solar winds emitted by the sun. The data sent back helped establish that solar winds stream continuously in interplanetary space. The spacecraft, more accurately described as a probe, was a small, hexagonally shaped box with an array of panels and an antenna attached.
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