Space probes are made to conduct science experiments. They do not have people on them. Space probes have helped scientists get information about our solar system. Most probes are not designed to return to Earth. Some have landed on other planets! Others have flown past the planets and taken pictures of them for scientists to see. There are even some space probes that go into orbit around other planets and study them for a long time. So, here are 25 interesting facts about space probes.



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1. Soviet probe, “Luna 15″, crashed into the surface of the moon while Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong were still on it.

2. In 1991, Spacewatch discovered an artificial body near earth that is now listed on the NASA Astrophysics data system as a possible alien probe that was observed in the vicinity of our planet. Its orbit will bring it back to the earth in 2016.

3. From 1975-82, Russia had six probes land on the surface of Venus, surviving temperatures of 855 °F and successfully taking photos.

4. The Mariner 1 probe, which was meant to orbit Venus, failed because of a missing hyphen in a line of code, making it the most expensive typo in the history.

5. Gravity Probe B has the most perfect spheres ever created by man “If GP-B’s gyroscopes were enlarged to the size of the earth, the tallest mountain would be just eight feet tall.”