Spacecraft have performed multiple flybys, orbits, and landings on the planet, including balloon probes that floated in its atmosphere. Study of the planet is aided by its relatively close proximity to the Earth, but the surface of Venus is obscured by an atmosphere opaque to visible light.
Venus Express carried a camera, a visible-light and infrared imaging spectrometer, and other instruments to study Venus’s magnetic field, plasma environment, atmosphere, and surface for a planned mission of more than two Venusian years.