Russia is preparing for a landmark space mission to Venus, with plans to launch its Venera-D interplanetary mission before 2036, according to state media reports.

The mission has officially been included in the country’s new national space programme, with preliminary design work scheduled to begin in January 2026. This aligns with the launch of Russia’s broader national space project, Oleg Korablev, head of the Department of Planetary Physics at the Space Research Institute (IKI) of the Russian Academy of Sciences, confirmed.

Korablev said the draft design phase will take two years, during which Russia’s Space Research Institute and the Lavochkin Association, a key space industry enterprise, will coordinate efforts through multiple technical meetings. The final launch date will be determined once design stages are complete, but officials assured it will happen before 2036.

The planned Venera-D mission is expected to include a lander, a balloon probe, and an orbital spacecraft, marking Russia’s most ambitious return to Venus since the Soviet era. Scientists believe the project could shed new light on Venus’ atmosphere, surface conditions, and potential for past habitability.

Earlier this year, IKI’s scientific director Lev Zeleny said the earliest possible launch would likely be in 2034 or 2035, given the scale of preparations needed.

Meanwhile, international space collaboration continues. On August 2, NASA confirmed the successful docking of Crew-11 at the International Space Station (ISS) after a 15-hour journey. The mission carried NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. They joined an existing ISS crew of NASA, JAXA, and Roscosmos members already on board.

With the Venera-D project underway, Russia is positioning itself to reassert its presence in planetary exploration and deepen its role in global space research.