Venera 10 Lander image of the surface of Venus. The objects at the bottom of the image are parts of the spacecraft.
Image: NSSDC/NASA.

On this date in 1975, the Soviet unmanned probe Venera 10 soft-landed on Venus, sending back data from the surface. Although it was designed to last only 30 minutes in the extremely high-temperature and high-pressure environment of Venus, Venera 10 transmitted for a record 65 minutes.

More information about Venera 10 may be found in NASA’s ‘Mission’ pages here.