Five Robotic Encounters: Firsts, Findings, and Lost Signals

Mars 3 achieved the first survivable landing on Mars, but its surface transmission stopped after just 14.5 seconds.

NASA’s Pioneer Venus Orbiter became the first American spacecraft to orbit Venus and mapped 93 percent of its surface.

Europe’s Giotto passed within 596 kilometers of Halley’s Comet’s core, the closest comet flyby achieved at the time.

The Soviet Phobos missions targeted Mars and its moon: Fobos 2 photographed Phobos, but lost contact before releasing its landing packages.