NASA Picks Venus as Hot Spot for Two New Robotic Missions

CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA - NASA is returning to sizzling Venus, our closest yet perhaps most overlooked neighbor, after decades of exploring other worlds.

The space agency's new administrator, Bill Nelson, announced two new robotic missions to the solar system's hottest planet, during his first major address to employees Wednesday. "These two sister missions both aim to understand how Venus became an inferno-like world capable of melting lead at the surface," Nelson said. One mission named DaVinci Plus will analyze the thick, cloudy Venusian atmosphere to determine whether the inferno planet ever had an ocean and was possibly habitable. A small craft will plunge through the atmosphere to measure the gases.