NASA Announces Two New Missions To Venus

NASA's last Venus orbiter was Magellan, which arrived in 1990, but other vessels have made fly-bys since then.

NASA announced two new missions to Venus on Wednesday that will launch at the end of the decade and are aimed at learning how Earth's nearest planetary neighbor became a hellscape while our own thrived. "These two sister missions both aim to understand how Venus became an inferno-like world, capable of melting lead at the surface," said Bill Nelson, the agency's newly-confirmed administrator. "They will offer the entire science community the chance to investigate a planet we haven't been to in more than 30 years." The missions have been awarded about $500 million under NASA's Discovery Program, and each is expected to launch in the 2028-2030 timeframe.