1978 saw the launch of the Pioneer Venus missions launched by the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, on 20 May and 8 August. The Pioneer Venus Multiprobe landed four spacecraft on the planet, one of which transmitted data for 67 minutes before being destroyed by atmospheric pressure. ISEE-C, which was launched on 8 December, flew past comet 1P/Halley in 1985.

Launches

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Deep Space Rendezvous

Date (GMT)	Spacecraft	Event	Remarks
4 December	Pioneer Venus Orbiter	Cytherocentric orbit insertion
9 December	Pioneer Venus Multiprobe	Venerian atmospheric Atmosphere of Venus The atmosphere of Venus is much denser and hotter than that of Earth. The temperature at the surface is 740 K , while the pressure is 93 bar. The Venusian atmosphere supports opaque clouds made of sulfuric acid, making optical Earth-based and orbital observation of the surface impossible...  entry	The bus, one large and three small subprobes
21 December	Venera 12 Venera 12 The Venera 12 was an USSR unmanned space mission to explore the planet Venus. Venera 12 was launched on 14 September 1978 at 02:25:13 UTC. Separating from its flight platform on December 19, 1978, the lander entered the Venus atmosphere two days later at 11.2 km/s. During the descent, it...	Venerian Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows...  landing
25 December	Venera 11 Venera 11 The Venera 11 was a USSR unmanned space mission part of the Venera program to explore the planet Venus. Venera 11 was launched on 9 September 1978 at 3:25:39 UTC....	Venerian Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows...  landing

EVAs

Start Date/Time	Duration	End Time	Spacecraft	Crew	Remarks
29 July 04:00	2 hours	06:20	Salyut 6 Salyut 6 Salyut 6 , DOS-5, was a Soviet orbital space station, the eighth flown as part of the Salyut programme. Launched on 29 September 1977 by a Proton rocket, the station was the first of the 'second-generation' type of space station. Salyut 6 possessed several revolutionary advances over the earlier... PE-2	Vladimir Kovalyonok Vladimir Kovalyonok -Honours and awards:* Hero of the Soviet Union, twice * Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 3rd class * Order of Military Merit * Three Orders of Lenin...	Ivanchenkov retrieved samples and experiments attached to the outside of Salyut. Kovalyonok assisted with the retrievals and used a color television camera to transmit EVA images to the ground controllers.