Back to Glossary

Venus

The second planet from the Sun and one of the brightest objects in Earth’s night sky. Venus is often visible near sunrise or sunset and is commonly referred to as the 'morning star' or 'evening star.'

Source: solarsystem.nasa.gov

APODs including "Venus"

An Atlas Centaur Rocket Launches

14/12/1995

An Atlas Centaur Rocket Launches
Image Credit: NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

Atlas Centaur rockets have launched over 75 successful unmanned missions. These missions included the Surveyor series - the first vehicles to make soft landings on the Moon, Pioneer 10 and 11 - the first missions to fly by Jupiter and Saturn and the first man-made objects able to leave our Solar System, the Viking missions which landed on Mars, several satellites in the High Energy Astrophysics Observatory (HEAO) series, Pioneer Venus which circled and mapped the surface of Venus, and numerous Intelsat satellites. Of recent scientific interest was the Atlas launched SOHO mission which will continually observe the Sun. Atlas rockets are manufactured by Lockheed Martin Co.