First Planetary Flyby Occurred 50 Years Ago

[Craig]

http://news.discovery.com/space/first-planetary-flyby-occurred-50-years-ago-today-121216.html

 

Fifty years ago on Dec. 14, NASA's Mariner 2 spacecraft made its closest approach to the planet Venus, marking the first-ever flyby of another planet.

 

Mariner 2 zoomed to within 21,564 miles (34,675 kilometers) of Venus on Dec. 14, 1962, gathering a trove of data about Earth's hellishly hot sister planet. The probe took the first close-up measurements of Venus' scorching temperatures, for example, helping confirm scientists' suspicions that a runaway greenhouse effect had taken hold of the world.