The Venera program was a series of Soviet spacecraft missions aimed at exploring Venus. Venera 1 was launched on January 12, 1961, and its primary mission was to gather data about the atmosphere and surface of Venus. However, after launch, communication with the probe was lost, and it failed to transmit any scientific data back to Earth. Despite this, Venera 1 successfully flew by Venus on May 19, 1961. This milestone made it the first human-made object to reach another planet, highlighting the technological ambitions of the Soviet space program during the Cold War. The probe's flyby has been described as a demonstration of Soviet capabilities in space exploration and a precursor to more successful missions in the years that followed.

Although it did not provide direct data due to the loss of contact, the mission signified a pivotal point in understanding interplanetary travel and the potential for future exploration of Venus. Following the Venera 1 mission, the Soviet Union continued to develop and launch additional Venera spacecraft, improving their technology and gathering increasingly detailed information about Venus’s atmosphere and surface conditions, eventually leading to successful landings in the 1970s and 1980s. The entire program contributed essential knowledge that shaped future exploration of not just Venus but also other celestial bodies in our solar system.