Press conference on first stage of VEGA project

An unusual phenomenon--the rapid rotation of Venus' cloud layer around the planet--has received reliable experimental confirmation. The second station flew by Venus on its way to Halley's Comet. Unique scientific information has been transmitted to Earth with the aid of instruments delivered by Vega-1 and Vega-2. The first of these aerostatic probes, which was in flight for 46 hours and traveled more than 10,000 kilometers in the planet's atmosphere, transmitted information which indicates that the clouds carried it around Venus at a rate of 60 to 70 meters a second. The significance of this data to the understanding of the Venusian atmosphere is discussed.