Venera 13 was the Soviet robotic lander that returned the first color photographs from Venus in 1982.
The spacecraft reached Venus on 1 March 1982 and transmitted images of the surface after landing. Its cameras operated through the planet’s dense atmosphere, while instruments examined the rocks and soil in an environment of extreme heat and pressure.
Venera 13 survived on the surface for 127 minutes, far longer than its planned operating time. Its photographs showed a rocky landscape under the yellowish light filtered through Venus’s clouds.
Venera 9 had already sent the first images from the surface of another planet in 1975, but those were not color photographs. Venera 13 is therefore specifically associated with the first color surface images from Venus.