Venera 7

Half-scale model of the Venera 7 landing capsule in a museum display The squat, heavily insulated shell is built like a pressure vessel, because Venus crushes and bakes anything that reaches its surface. Venera 7 came down on December 15, 1970, and became the first spacecraft to send data from the surface of another planet. Its faint signal lasted about 23 minutes and reported a temperature of around 475°C, roughly 890°F.