The Soviet Union landed on Venus. Photos from the surface. HD

Venera-9 was the first lander to photograph the surface of Venus, on October 20, 1975 Venera-10 landed on October 23, 1975 and returned almost two scans of the terrain. Venera-12 landed on Venus on December 21, 1978, and Venera-11 landed on December 25. All of the color panoramic cameras failed, due to atmospheric pressure. The descent module of Venera-13 landed on Venus on March 1, 1982. Two optical-mechanical cameras repeatedly scanned 180° or 60° through clear and colored filters and at higher resolution than the Venera-9/10 system. Venera-14 arrived four days after Venera-13, and its descent module landed on March 5. It remained in contact with the flyby module for 57 minutes. The twin orbiters, Venera-15 and Venera-16, carried out the first high resolution survey of the surface of Venus, using synthetic aperture radar and radar altimetry. Surveying took place from November 11 1983 to July 10 1984, covering the northern cap of the planet down to about 25° latitude. http://www.mentallandscape.com/C_CatalogVenus.htm http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap950927.html