Venus’s First Color Surface Portrait: Venera 13’s 127-Minute Sweep Through Hell

In March 1982, the Soviet Venera 13 lander touched down on a basalt plain of Venus, withstood 465°C and ~92 atmospheres, scraped a soil sample, ran a chemical analysis, and transmitted the first color photographs from the surface of another planet, lasting 127 minutes—far longer than its designers expected. Its drill and a lens-cap feature became iconic just as Venera 14 followed with a shorter mission; no Venus surface landers have returned since. The photos and soil data helped shape later planetary science, while the lander remains on Venus, slowly cooked by the hellish environment.