314
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. von Ehrenfried, Stratospheric Balloons, Springer Praxis Books,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68130-2
Appendix 5
Planetary Balloons
A.5.1 History
The Vega program was a series of Venus missions that also took advantage of the
reappearance of comet 1P/Halley in 1986. Vega 1 and Vega 2 were a cooperative
effort between the U.S.S.R. and Austria, Bulgaria, France, Hungary, the German
Democratic Republic, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and the Federal Republic of
Germany in December 1984. They had a two-part mission to investigate Venus
and also flyby Halley’s Comet. The spacecraft design was based on the previous
Venera 9 and Venera 10. The two Vega spacecraft were launched on December 15
and 21, 1984, respectively. With their redesignated dual missions, the Vega probes
became part of the Halley Armada, a group of space probes that studied Halley’s
Comet during its 1985-1986 perihelion.
The craft were powered by twin large solar panels. Their instruments included
an antenna dish, cameras, spectrometer, infrared sounder, magnetometers and
space plasma probes. The 4,920 kg (10,847 lb) probes were launched by Proton
8K82K rockets from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Tyuratam, Kazakh SSR. They were
three-axis stabilized and were fitted with a dual “bumper shield” for dust protection in the vicinity of the comet.
Vega 1 arrived at Venus on June 11, 1985 and Vega 2 on June 15, 1985 and each
released a 1,500 kg (3,300 lb), 240 cm (94 in) diameter spherical descent capsule
some days out from Venus. Each contained a lander and a balloon explorer. The
main spacecraft performed flybys for gravitational assist maneuvers to put them
on course to intercept the comet.
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. von Ehrenfried, Stratospheric Balloons, Springer Praxis Books,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68130-2
Appendix 5
Planetary Balloons
A.5.1 History
The Vega program was a series of Venus missions that also took advantage of the
reappearance of comet 1P/Halley in 1986. Vega 1 and Vega 2 were a cooperative
effort between the U.S.S.R. and Austria, Bulgaria, France, Hungary, the German
Democratic Republic, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and the Federal Republic of
Germany in December 1984. They had a two-part mission to investigate Venus
and also flyby Halley’s Comet. The spacecraft design was based on the previous
Venera 9 and Venera 10. The two Vega spacecraft were launched on December 15
and 21, 1984, respectively. With their redesignated dual missions, the Vega probes
became part of the Halley Armada, a group of space probes that studied Halley’s
Comet during its 1985-1986 perihelion.
The craft were powered by twin large solar panels. Their instruments included
an antenna dish, cameras, spectrometer, infrared sounder, magnetometers and
space plasma probes. The 4,920 kg (10,847 lb) probes were launched by Proton
8K82K rockets from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Tyuratam, Kazakh SSR. They were
three-axis stabilized and were fitted with a dual “bumper shield” for dust protection in the vicinity of the comet.
Vega 1 arrived at Venus on June 11, 1985 and Vega 2 on June 15, 1985 and each
released a 1,500 kg (3,300 lb), 240 cm (94 in) diameter spherical descent capsule
some days out from Venus. Each contained a lander and a balloon explorer. The
main spacecraft performed flybys for gravitational assist maneuvers to put them
on course to intercept the comet.