The Soviet Union’s Venera program revealed that Venus is a hellish world with extreme conditions far beyond early scientific expectations. The first successful surface landing by Venera 7 in 1970 confirmed surface temperatures of 465–475°C (hotter than a pizza oven) and atmospheric pressure 90 times that of Earth, equivalent to being 1 kilometer underwater. Later missions, including Venera 9, 10, 13, and 14, provided the first
