Vega At Venus Options

[Paolo]

I have an AWST article that says that the Vega buses were occulted by Venus and performed radioccultation experiments. However, no results were apparently ever published and the occultation is not mentioned anywhere else. Anybody knows anything more?

[bobik]

What did happen with the Vega 1 lander during the descent through the atmosphere of Venus? In his book Infinity Beckoned, Jay Gallentine wrote, based on an interview with Viktor Kerzhanovich who was responsible for the Doppler measurements:

The lander continued its plummet. Forty-five minutes of surf and counting. But with only ninety-five thousand feet remaining, disaster spat once again. Call it a “shock layer,” call it “lightning clouds”: planetary scientists can’t agree on a name but the effect is the same regardless. An incredible surge of energy buffeted the Vega 1 lander, flinging it back upward at seventy miles an hour and fooling the urn into thinking it was already on the ground. With absolutely nothing at its feet the soil drill fred up, probing for scratchy rock that wasn’t there.

This sounds quite incredible. Strangely enough, it seems no scientific paper which details these Doppler measurements was ever published.