VLADIVOSTOK: Russia is preparing to launch its Venera-D interplanetary mission to revisit Venus before 2036, according to local media reports on Sunday.
The mission has been included in the country’s new national space program, with preliminary design work scheduled to begin in January 2026, coinciding with the program’s official launch, said Oleg Korablev, head of the Department of Planetary Physics at the Space Research Institute (IKI) of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as quoted by TASS.
The draft design phase will run for two years, with preparations already underway in collaboration with the Lavochkin Association, a leading Russian space industry enterprise. Coordination meetings are being held to ensure smooth progress, Korablev added.
The final launch date will be set once the design stage is complete. “But it will definitely take place within the current planning period, no later than 2036,” Korablev noted.
The Venera-D mission will feature a lander, a balloon probe, and an orbital spacecraft. Earlier, IKI’s scientific director, Academician Lev Zeleny, suggested the launch was unlikely before 2034 or 2035.
