In Parts I and II we looked at what the Kepler space telescope found and how it furthered our understanding of exoplanets.

In previous articles, we’ve thoroughly reviewed past, present, and future missions sent to explore and study Venus. This research is certainly interesting in its own right.

NASA launched the first-of-its-kind Kepler Space Telescope in 2009 to hunt for exoplanets in the Milky Way galaxy.

In the first, second, and third articles in this series, I described Venus space research by the U.S. and USSR from the beginning of the space age to the 1980s. These two nations would be the only ones to pursue Venus research in the 20th century. But the new millennium has brought new participants to the Venus space exploration effort.

We humans have long suspected that we are not alone; that the circumstances of our planet and our solar system are perhaps more ordinary than they might appear from our view of the night sky. For most of recorded history, humankind believed that the Earth was the sole oasis for life in an otherwise barren universe and center stage in the design of the cosmos.

In the first and second articles in this series, I described how Venus space research got off to a rocky start in the 1960s, as most early missions launched by both the United States and the Soviet Union failed to reach their targets.

In the first part of this article series, I described how Venus space research got off to a rocky start in the 1960s. Only NASA’s Mariner 2 mission in 1962 fully achieved its intended objectives. The USSR achieved partial success with Venera 2 and Venera 3 in 1965 and 1966, respectively.

Venus is often described as a twin sister planet of the Earth because of the apparent similarities between the two worlds. Venus was first discovered by Galileo in 1610.

This week in 2006, SuitSat-1, a decommissioned Russian spacesuit, was taken on a spacewalk from the International Space Station by cosmonaut Valeri Tokarev and astronaut Bill McArthur. The suit was then released and allowed to enter its own independent orbit. No doubt becoming one of the strangest satellites in history.