The other mission, Kosmos-482, failed to leave Earth orbit. (Image credit: Hall of Venus/NPO Lavochkin) Venera 8 artwork shows the landing capsule on the cloud-veiled world on July 22, 1972.

The US Space Force shared a picture captured last year by one of the X-37B's onboard cameras. The space plane is currently carrying out its seventh mission.

This colorized picture of Venus was taken Feb. 14, 1990, from a distance of almost 1.7 million miles, about 6 days after NASA's Galileo made it's closest approach to the planet.

The recent fall to Earth of a failed Soviet Venus probe from the 1970s has become a detective story of sorts. Different computer models were used to predict the reentry.