A Deep Dive into the Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace

Nice shots Grant!

So, I'm looking to hammer this out as I'm going to be busy for a few days and won't have access to the computer and there's no way I could do this on a mobile and I want to get it done by this afternoon, so here goes...

We are entering the La Conquet Spatiale hall, and there are some fascinating items in here worthy of further examination. We begin with an obvious starting point, this is the thrust chamber from an A 4 rocket, the infamous V 2, which I need not elaborate on owing to the knowledge of our readers, but let's look at this item a little more closely. From the top we see the 18 fuel injector pots, commonly called "pepper pots", in which fuel and oxidiser was injected into the combustion chamber. This is surrounded by rings, which were designed for subsidiary cooling of the entire thrust chamber unit, being filled with flowing alcohol, the fuel before it was forced into the pepper pots for induction into the combustion chamber. Liquid oxygen, the oxidiser was ducted through the vertical pipes ringing the lower edge of the bell for primary cooling of the bell opening. As is visible, the thrust bell is integral with the combustion chamber, the direction of the thrust being dictated by carbon moveable fins mounted external to the mouth of the bell, which directed the thrust plume on exiting the bell. Made of 1604 steel, the unit had a weight of 937 lb and was 35.4 inches at its widest point, with a chamber pressure of 25 atmospheres, the combustion chamber head was designed to withstand a total pressure of 220,500 lb, the head undergoing thermal expansion by between 0.4 to 0.8 inches to accommodate this. Designed for mass production, the unit's design was carefully calculated and much research and trial was carried out to get it right, but also to facilitate the needs of mass production at satellite sites by unskilled (mostly slave) labour.

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We now jump forward in time to this Diamant A rocket, France's indigenous satellite launcher. First launched on 25 November 1965, the Diamant was the product of Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES), the French space agency with the task of launching indigenous satellites, lofting the Asterix communications satellite into orbit during its first attempt from the launch centre at Hammaguir, Becchar Province, Algeria. In doing so, France became only the third country to produce an indigenous rocket and payload and put it successfully into space. A three-stage liquid and solid propellant rocket, the Diamant and its subsequent launchers under the same programme is largely deemed a success, despite opposition from other European nations who wanted a joint European launcher. This was pursued through the European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO), whose Europa rocket's first stage comprised the British Blue Streak ballistic missile, although ultimately Europa and ELDO failed in its objective and the European Space Agency (ESA) and its largely French rocket Ariane was born from France's efforts with Diamant and former ELDO member states Germany, Italy and Britain tagging along.

Some information about Diamant A from here:


"The Diamant A had a number of innovative aspects for its day which might be applicable to small launch vehicles. It had one of the first multinozzle solid motors with gimballing nozzles. It used a solid gas generator to pressurize the first stage liquid propellant tanks. The first stage motors were extremely simple, as liquid motors go, utilizing a graphite throat and film cooling. The Diamant rockets had no guidance system, only a control system, and were guided from the ground."

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Testing the Diamant took many months and involved many different sounding platforms as rocketry and space research in the 1950s was very much an unknown. This cluster of sounding rockets is representative of French efforts to investigate those hard questions that needed answers, such as how much tolerance would a ballistic missile require to survive maximum aerodynamic pressure after launch, what kinds of temperatures and pressures would an object re-entering earth's atmosphere encounter and such like. The biggest rocket to the left is Rubis, which was designed to test the Diamant's third stage and nosecone, being the largest type of sounding rocket used by the French; the Diamant's third stage was spin stabilised and was powered by a solid propellant motor called P.064 which comprised an elongated wound fibreglass phenolic casing containing isolane propellant and a single thrust chamber. The red missiles are from the Sudav-Belier family, the centre rocket is the Dragon, then Centaure, and Belier's nose cone peeking above the edge, with a Veronique, France's first sounding rocket at far right.

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France is a fully fledged member of the nuclear club and this is an example of France's first deployable land based nuclear missile, the S2 Sol-Sol Ballistique Strategique (SSBS) intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM). The S2 was a two-stage solid propellant rocket with a single MR.31 120 kt warhead mounted within the nosecone, and was in service between 1971 and 1984 before being replaced by the S3 missile (see later). Operated by the 1er​ Groupement de Missiles Stratégiques (1er​ GMS) or the 1st Strategic Missile Group of the Force de Dissuasion, the land based arm of the Force de Frappe, France has developed its own nuclear arsenal independent of NATO and the United States, preferring to take its own path, the development of which is lengthy and detailed and the origins of the Force de Frappe can be read about here:


"France began a program to develop ballistic missiles on 17 September 1959 with the creation of a special company called SEREB (the Society for Research and Development of Ballistic Engines). The technology had to be developed from scratch with the goal of building missiles for both land and sea basing with an intended range of 3500 km. The flight test center for the project, code-named "Precious Stones", was based in the Algerian Sahara.

"On 26 November 1965 France launched its first satellite. The first ballistic missile to be developed - the SSBS S2 (Sol-Sol Balistique Strategique) IRBM (intermediate range ballistic missile) began testing in launches in October 1965. It was deployed on the Plateau d'Albion between Marseille and Lyon where 18 silos were built in two groups of 9. The missile force, armed with the 120 kt pure fission MR-31, finally went operational on 2 August 1971."

The S2 IRBM to the left, with its successor the S3 alongside.

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This is re-entry vehicle shape, of which I cannot identify and might be a development shape as opposed to being representative of an actual warhead. It might be that which occupied the S2's nose cone, the MR.31, which was a 120 kt plutonium fission warhead weighing 700 kg, which is believed to be the highest yield plutonium fission device ever fielded. It looks similar to the TN.61 fitted to the S3 missile that replaced the S2, but we'll see one of those soon. It is most likely a test vehicle sent aloft in a sounding rocket during ballistics trials and recovered, the scorching and wear indicating atmospheric testing.

Here are passage from the above mentioned source on trialling thermonuclear warheads, firstly in Algeria and then at Mururoa, the beleaguered Pacific atoll, where France controversially continued testing, much to the rest of the world's, particularly neighbouring Pacific nations chagrin.

"In a Defence Council meeting on 17 June 1958 de Gaulle authorized a nuclear test to be held early the next year. The site chosen was the Reganne oasis 700 km south of Colomb Bechar in the Sahara Desert of Algeria; the operation was commanded by Gen Aillert. The first French nuclear test, code-named Gerboise Bleue, was detonated at 0704 GMT on 13 February 1960 at Reggane in Algeria (00.04 deg W, 26.19 deg N) atop a 105 m tower. This device, a prototype for the AN-11 warhead deployed three years later, used plutonium and had a notably high yield of 60-70 kt. No other nuclear power has ever detonated such a powerful device as its first test.

"France continued to use the Reggane site for the next three atmospheric tests. The last of these, on 25 April 1961, was really a low yield "scuttle" of the test device to prevent it from falling into the hands of mutineers during the "Revolt of the Generals", set in motion three days earlier by General Maurice Challe. These atmospheric test brought severe condemnation from other African nations, so all subsequent tests in Algeria shifted to underground testing at In Ecker in the Hoggar of southern Algeria, about 150 km north of Tamanrassett. In Ecker is in the mountainous area of Tan Afela and was chosen for the availability of rock strata for testing. The facility created for testing there was called the Oasis Military Test Center.

"Testing in Algeria continued until 16 February 1966, three and a half years after Algeria had gained independence. The test site was returned to Algerian control 15 January 1967. France's testing program then moved to the Mururoa and Fangataufa Atolls in the South Pacific.

"Sometime in the early sixties, an effort to develop thermonuclear weapons began. The man chosen to lead the project was a brilliant young physicist employed by the CEA named Roger Dautry [Who?!]. Little is known about this program, but it came to fruition in the Canopus test at 18:30 on 24 August 1968 over Fangataufa Atoll. In this test a 3 tonne device suspended at an altitude of 600 m from a balloon produced a yield of 2.6 megatons (and became the largest nuclear device France ever tested). The device used a lithium-6 deuteride secondary jacketed with highly enriched uranium and heavily contaminated the atoll, leaving it off limits to humans for six years."

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Now, we examine a ballistic nuclear missile up close. This is an S3 SSBS rocket, which was commissioned in 1981 and retired in 1996. Its first stage was inherited from the S2 rocket and is driven by solid propellant through four thrust chambers, which are gimbal mounted for directional control, which comes from the rocket's own inertial guidance system mounted in the nose section. The stage weighs 16 tons and is constructed of welded sections of 18/8 mm Z2-NKDT steel, carrying 37,350 lbs of solid fuel, which burns for a total of 72 seconds before it is discarded.

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The S3's second stage was inherited from the M.20 Mer-Sol-Balistique-Stratégique (MSBS) submarine launched ballistic missile, which was deployed aboard France's Le Redoutable Class ballistic missile submarines. Named Rita II, the stage was made of would fibreglass and carrying 13,261 lbs of solid fuel, burning for 58 seconds before the stage drops away. Exiting through a single fixed bell, thrust is vectored using inert gases injected through tiny holes into the bell downstream of the throat, a rather clever method of thrust vectoring, which was found to be more effective in the vacuum of space for missile manoeuvring; the US Polaris A3 submarine launched missile employing the same method of thrust vectoring in space in its second stage, using freon gas - I'm not sure what the French use, but it is likely to also be freon. The inter-stage separation collar is positioned alongside the stage.

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Finally, the bit that goes bang. This is the most important part of the missile and contains the guidance system and warhead, the re-entry vehicle shape visible within the cutaway shroud. The S3 was the first French missile to employ a digital flight control system that was resistant to electromagnetic impulse from proximity nuclear detonation. Housing a single thermonuclear warhead of the TN.61 type of approximately 1.2 megaton yield, a bit of information from here:


"This is a family of thermonuclear warheads that began development at least as far back as 1968, when the first developmental nuclear tests were conducted. The first member of this family, the TN-60, was also France's first thermonuclear weapon. The development process was quite lengthy, requiring 21 nuclear tests spread over eight years. The resulting warhead was relatively sophisticated however, similar to U.S. designs of the early sixties such as the W-56 Minuteman II warhead fielded in 1963. The TN-60 was replaced by the improved TN-61 which was lighter in weight and was hardened against nuclear weapon effects. The TN-60/61 family was used to arm both submarine launched missiles (the MSBS M20 and MSBS M4) and land-based missiles (the SSBS S3).

"The first TN-60 was transferred from the CEA to the military on 24 January 1976, and effectively entered service in early 1977 when the first SSBN patrol carrying the MSBS M20 missile was made. The TN-60 did not remain in service for long since it was quickly superseded by the TN-61, which entered service late in 1977. Both warheads had a yield of 1 megaton, the TN-61 weighed 275-375 kg (700 kg with re-entry vehicle). The lighter weight of the TN-61 allowed the addition of penetration aids (e.g. decoys) to the RV. Enough TN-60/61 warheads were built to arm four submarines at a time, a total of 64 warheads. A maximum of about 70 warheads total were in stockpile at any given time (to allow for spares). The last TN-61 was withdrawn from naval service in February 1991.

"The TN-61 also armed the SSBS S3 missile based in silos on the Plateau d'Albion. The first set of nine TN-61 armed missiles went operational 1 June 1980, and the second set of nine on 1 January 1983. About 20 TN-61s were built for land-based deployment (18 on duty, and 2 spares). The TN-61 was retired from service with the deactivation of the SSBS S3D on 16 September 1996. A total of about 90 TN-61s were manufactured for all purposes."

The TN.61 was eventually replaced by MIRVed (Multiple Independently Targetted Re-entry Vehicle) TN.70/71 warheads that were smaller and lighter and deployed in missiles aboard submarines. With the S3 having been retired in 1996, the French concentrated its ballistic missile launched nuclear arsenal within its submarine fleet and the missile site in Haute-Provence was completely dismantled.

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The Musee's rocket cluster, with Rubis to the left and the small sounding rockets culminating in Veronique behind it, and the S2 and S3 SSBS nuclear missiles to the right.

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Next, a friendlier approach to space vehicles...

Finally, the last post of images from the Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace and we remain within the La Conquet Spatiale hall and spend this post examining equipment largely produced by the greatest interplanetary power of the 20th Century, yes, that's right, the Soviet Union, whose reign in space took it to other planets within our Solar System before anyone else and we look at some of these, with a little lunar interlude on the way.

This unmistakable shape shook the world on its audible debut in 1957, Sputnik 1's launch arguably kick started the Space Race, which culminated in the United States landing men on the moon before the Soviet Union, although the Soviets got there first with a remote probe. It is worth pointing out that despite US superiority in reaching the moon in the late 1960s, the Soviet Union was a force to be reckoned with, sending the first probes to foreign bodies, including the first to land on another planet in the Solar System, but far be it for me in hoping that this doesn't become a pissing contest, let's look at Sputnik a little more in depth from the usual source:

"Sputnik 1 was launched during the International Geophysical Year from Site No.1/5, at the 5th Tyuratam range, in Kazakh SSR (now known as the Baikonur Cosmodrome). The satellite travelled at a peak speed of about 8 km/s (18,000 mph), taking 96.20 minutes to complete each orbit. It transmitted on 20.005 and 40.002 MHz, which were monitored by radio operators throughout the world. The signals continued for 21 days until the transmitter batteries ran out on 26 October 1957. Sputnik 1 burned up on 4 January 1958 while reentering Earth's atmosphere, after three months, 1,440 completed orbits of the Earth, and a distance travelled of about 7.0×107​ km (4.3×107​ mi)."

"The chief constructor of Sputnik 1 at OKB-1 was Mikhail S. Khomyakov. The satellite was a 585-millimetre (23.0 in) diameter sphere, assembled from two hemispheres that were hermetically sealed with O-rings and connected by 36 bolts. It had a mass of 83.6 kilograms (184 lb). The hemispheres were 2 mm thick, and were covered with a highly polished 1 mm-thick heat shield made of an aluminium–magnesium–titanium alloy, AMG6T. The satellite carried two pairs of antennas designed by the Antenna Laboratory of OKB-1, led by Mikhail V. Krayushkin. Each antenna was made up of two whip-like parts, 2.4 and 2.9 metres (7.9 and 9.5 ft) in length, and had an almost spherical radiation pattern.

"The satellite had a one-watt, 3.5 kg (7.7 lb) radio transmitting unit inside, developed by Vyacheslav I. Lappo from NII-885, the Moscow Electronics Research Institute, that worked on two frequencies, 20.005 and 40.002 MHz. Signals on the first frequency were transmitted in 0.3 s pulses (near f = 3 Hz) (under normal temperature and pressure conditions on board), with pauses of the same duration filled by pulses on the second frequency. Analysis of the radio signals was used to gather information about the electron density of the ionosphere. Temperature and pressure were encoded in the duration of radio beeps. A temperature regulation system contained a fan, a dual thermal switch, and a control thermal switch. If the temperature inside the satellite exceeded 36 °C (97 °F), the fan was turned on; when it fell below 20 °C (68 °F), the fan was turned off by the dual thermal switch. If the temperature exceeded 50 °C (122 °F) or fell below 0 °C (32 °F), another control thermal switch was activated, changing the duration of the radio signal pulses. Sputnik 1 was filled with dry nitrogen, pressurized to 1.3 atm (130 kPa). The satellite had a barometric switch, activated if the pressure inside the satellite fell below 130 kPa, which would have indicated failure of the pressure vessel or puncture by a meteor, and would have changed the duration of radio signal impulse.

While attached to the rocket, Sputnik 1 was protected by a cone-shaped payload fairing, with a height of 80 cm (31.5 in). The fairing separated from both Sputnik and the spent R-7 second stage at the same time as the satellite was ejected. Tests of the satellite were conducted at OKB-1 under the leadership of Oleg G. Ivanovsky."

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A scale model of the Vostok I spacecraft within which Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space. There is much written about this momentous achievement that passages cut from wikipedia and other sites can't really do it justice, suffice to say, in Vostok, the human race took its first fleeting steps into space.

Here is a brief description of the Vostok capsule, from the excellent Technik Museum Speyer in Germany, where a full scale reproduction can be seen:


"The Vostok 1 spaceship was the first manned Soviet spaceship. The craft consisted of a spherical descent module, which housed the cosmonaut, instruments and escape system, and an instrument module, which contained propellant and the engine system. The technical and scientific equipment mainly consisted of telemetry and communication devices as well as landing sensors and the landing parachute. The cosmonaut was strapped to an ejection seat. Since it was not possible to sufficiently decelerate the landing capsule on reentry, the cosmonaut was ejected from the craft at an altitude of about 7,000 m and descended via parachute, while the capsule landed separately. The ejection seat could also be activated during take-off if a problem with the launch rocket occurred."

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The Soviets' next manned spacecraft was the Soyuz, which has demonstrated remarkable longevity, to the extent that derivatives of the basic design are still in use today by the Russian Federation in transporting personnel to and from the International Space Station, as well as Progress escape modules on the ISS being based on the Soyuz, by far and away the most successful and widely used space ship built to date. This is Soyuz T-6, which in 1982 took the first French astronaut into space, Jean-Loup Chrétien, with two Cosmonauts to the Salyut space station.

A bit on Soyuz T-6:

"Soyuz T-6 launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on 24 June 1982 at 16:29 GMT. Docking with the Salyut 7 station was completed manually after problems arose with the spacecraft's onboard automatic docking systems. Once aboard Salyut 7, the crew completed joint Soviet-French, including echography and antibiotic experiments, with the station's resident crew, the crew of Soyuz T-5.

The mission transported the first Frenchman, Jean-Loup Chrétien, into space. While aboard the station, the resident crew afforded him the opportunity to eject Salyut 7's weekly bag of waste into space through the station's small trash airlock. Valentin Lebedev, writing in his diary, quoted Chrétien as saying Salyut 7 "is simple, doesn't look impressive, but is reliable."

This is the central crew capsule, the only segment of the three part spacecraft to return to Earth. Note the instructions on the back explaining how to retrieve the crew, the ablative heat shield having been jettisoned/burnt away by this stage, presumably.

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The inside of the Soyuz T-6, here's a detailed description of the descent module from French wiki, so excuse the Frenglish:

The descent module (Russian: спускаемый аппарат; Spuskaemyi abbreviated as SA), located between the service module and the orbital module, is the only part of the ship that returns to the ground. It has an external height of 2.24 meters, an outer diameter of 2.17 meters and provides its crew with a habitable volume of 3.5m3​. In the shape of a car headlight, it has at its base the heat shield, at its top an opening closed by a hatch, and two portholes on its sides. The opening, which has a diameter of 70 cm and can only be sealed on the side of the descent module, opens as a result of a short tunnel into the habitable space of the orbital module; after returning to Earth, it allows the crew to evacuate the ship. The main parachute as well as an emergency parachute are housed in a relatively large lenticular shaped compartment, located in the upper part of the module and closed by an operculum. The entire surface of the module is covered with an ablative coating that protects it from heat during atmospheric re-entry. The base of the module, which undergoes temperatures of 1,800 °C, is protected by a thick ablative heat shield that is dropped in the final phase of re-entry.

The three occupants are lying on bunks arranged in a fan jointed at the level of the feet but spread at the level of the shoulders. The berths are placed at the bottom of the module, not far from the bulkhead behind which the heat shield is located. The head is higher than the lower part of the body to allow cosmonauts to access the instrument panels that face them. Each berth is adapted to the measurements of its occupant and wraps it in particular at the level of his head while the knees are raised, which must help him to withstand the acceleration (see photo opposite). Between the berths and the heat shield is part of the on-board electronics. Above the astronauts' heads, the parachute compartment and nets reserved for transported cargo restrict the limited living space available.

The ship's commander is installed on the central berth, the flight engineer is on his left while the third occupant, who plays no role in the conduct of the ship since the TMA version, is installed on his right. The commander is in charge of the mission: he communicates with the ground control and performs the maneuvers of change of orbit, orientation and appointments. For this purpose, he has two joysticks arranged on each side of his bunk; one makes it possible to perform translation maneuvers in the three axes (increase speed, raise altitude...) while the other acts on the orientation of the ship (roll, pitch, yaw). It does not have a porthole but the image provided by a periscope whose screen faces it and whose optical part extends far beyond the hull of the ship to allow it to observe forward during docking maneuvers. Optics can also be oriented towards the Earth. In particular, the flight engineer monitors the orientation parameters of the spacecraft and the life support system of the ship."

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Chrétien's suit. Information on the man himself here:


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this rather peculiar shape is a model of the very first man made craft to make a soft landing on a foreign celestial body, this is the Luna 9 module. Not the most successful space programme, the Luna probes nevertheless gave us the first close up images of earth's nearest neighbour from its surface. Here's some background from French wiki, which is far more detailed than the English version:

"The probes of the Luna program thus carried out the first flyby of the Moon(Luna 1 in January 1959), crashed the first artificial object on the ground of our satellite (Luna 2 in September 1959) and made the first photos of the far side of the Moon (Luna 3 in October 1959). The Soviet lunar program then experienced between 1960 and 1965 a continuous series of 13 failures, of which only five were made official at the time.

"The first attempt to launch the new probe model was a success. The Luna 9 probe was launched on January 31, 1966. It landed smoothly on February 3, 1966 at 18:44:52 in the Oceanus Procellarum (the "Ocean of Storms") and sent the first panoramic images of the lunar soil. Seven sessions of transmissions, for a total of 8 hours and 5 minutes, allowed the restitution of four panoramas before the battery, the only source of energy, ran out. Once assembled, we could reconstruct a panoramic view of the landing site. These photographs included shots of the surrounding rocks as well as the skyline 1.4 km from the lander."

A description of the probe;

"The probe, type Ye-6M, is 2.7 meters long with a mass of about 1.6 tons. It consists of three subsets in the extension of each other.

"The main propulsion system is based on an Isaev rocket engine, with 4.64 tons of thrust and consuming hypergolic propellants, is responsible for cancelling the speed of the probe before landing. Four small motors of 245newton thrust located on its sides are used for attitude control during the descent phase.

"The engine compartment is topped by a pressurized compartment containing avionics and telecommunications system. On the sides of this module are two submodules. One contains a radar-altimeter used to trigger the firing of the rocket engine during descent as well as the engines responsible for attitude control during the Earth-Moon transit. The second contains the sensors responsible for determining the orientation during the flight.

"At the top is the lander itself which is a sphere of 58 cm in diameter hermetically sealed and weighing 105 kg. It contains a telecommunications system, a programmer, a thermal control system, batteries and scientific instruments. The sphere is surrounded by two inflated airbags during the descent phase that protect it from the impact on landing. Once on the lunar soil, the sphere opens by deploying four petals and four antennas 75 cm long are deployed. The batteries provide enough power for five hours of probe activity over a four-day period. Deployable petals and an off-center center of mass ensure that the probe lands with the upper face facing upwards."

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While the US was sending people to the moon, the Soviets were trying and failing spectacularly to do the same, but they did return to the moon and from its surface return samples of moon rock, from their successful Lunokhod mission, as a part of the greater Luna programme. Here's our usual source with a paragraph on the Lunokhod 1 rover:

"Luna 17 left its Earth orbit towards the Moon and entered lunar orbit on November 15, 1970. The spacecraft landed on the Moon in the Sea of Rains on November 17. He deployed a double ramp that allowed Lunokhod 1 to descend to the lunar surface. Lunokhod 1 was a tubular lunar vehicle powered by eight-wheel drive. It was equipped with a conical antenna, a directional antenna, four cameras and various articulated appendages intended to carry out tests concerning the lunar soil. It also featured an X-ray spectrometer, an X-ray telescope, cosmic ray detectors, and a laser reflector. Running on solar energy, Lunokhod was originally scheduled to operate for three lunar days but in reality it remained in operation for eleven lunar days. It was officially declared inactive on October 4, 1971,the anniversary of Sputnik 1. Lunokhod traveled a distance of 10,540 meters and transmitted more than 20,000 images, and more than 200 panoramas. It has also carried out more than 500 tests on the lunar soil."

During its extensive surveying of the lunar surface in 2009, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter found the rover, its last transmission to Earth having been made 38 years earlier.

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Across the moon at the Taurus-Littrow Valley in December 1972, Eugene Cernan became the last man to walk on the moon (to date). His space suit has found its way to France and can be seen near the Lunokhod rover model.

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Cernan needs no introduction, being one of only 12 men to have gone to another celestial body other than Earth. That makes him kind'a special.

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While the US was investigating the enormity of the task to launch men to the moon, the Soviet Union was ploughing on with its interstellar ambitions and launched a probe whose mission has been overshadowed by the astounding achievement of landing men on the moon, but was no less spectacular in what it achieved. Venera 4 became the very first man made spacecraft to land on another planet. Information on this remarkable achievement from the usual source:

"Venera 4 was launched on June 12, 1967. As with previous flights, the Soviets did not make known the exact mission of the craft, even on the eve of arrival. A little heavier than the Series of Venera 2 and 3 (1,106 kg vs. 960 kg), Venera 4 is the first to successfully transmit data to Earth during its parachute descent, eclipsing the success of the flyby of Venus at the same time by the American Mariner 5probe.

"The 383 kg ovoid capsule dropped by Venera 4 descended into the atmosphere on October 18, 1967 in the unlit part of the planet, near the equator. It broadcast measurements of the density, temperature and atmospheric composition of Venus. The orbital spacecraft relayed this information to the USSR, as well as to Jodrell Bank which at the request of the Russians also provided receptions.

"During the parachute descent, the readings transmitted for thirty minutes varied from a temperature of 40 ° C to a pressure of an atmosphere to a temperature of 274 ° C and a pressure of 22 atmospheres. If at first, the media thought that the capsule had landed on the surface of Venus, the difference between the values observed by Venera 4 and those much higher obtained by Mariner 5 made it possible to interpret that the cessation of retransmission of the data of Venera 4 occurred at an altitude of 24km. The measured atmospheric composition then gave about 90 to 93% carbon dioxide, 7% nitrogen,0.4 to 0.8% oxygen and 0.1 to 1.6% water vapor."

"A crown of hydrogen was spotted at an altitude of 9,920 km, a thousand times less than that of the Earth, suggesting that the planet had leaked water into the cosmos during its youth. No radiation belts or magnetic fields were detected."

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So, that's it from the Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace. I hope you have enjoyed reading through this rather extensive thread, which has taken quite awhile to produce. There are of course more images I have taken that didn't appear in the thread, they can be seen here:


Thanks again for following along and I'll see y'all in another Deep Dive into another great aviation collection soon.

A plate of bacon for you Grant. Excellent thread.

Really good stiff!

Lovely shots Grant!

Thank you all, gentlemen. Oops, of course, Gene Cernan was one of 12 men to walk on the moon, not six...

Thank you, lovely read and i say well written. Excellent thread wich i enjoyed very much.