Venera 7

Discovered by: OKB-301, also called Lavochkin Research and Production Association, is a Russian aerospace company.

What is it? A Soviet spacecraft, part of the Venera series of probes to Venus.

Why is it important? When it landed on the Venusian surface on 15 December 1970, it became the first spacecraft to soft land on another planet and the first to transmit data from there back to Earth. [Image - USSR Post]