Encounter with Venus: An Update

This report is an introduction to the accompanying collection of early results from the Pioneer Venus orbiter and multiprobe missions, which encountered Venus on 4 December and 9 December 1978, respectively. Initial results for the multiprobe mission and for the first 30 days of the orbiter mission were reported in the 23 February issue of Science. Additional mission features and updated mission parameters based on refined tracking data and trajectory computations are presented here. New scientific results for both missions are given in the subsequent reports which cover the first 130 days (or orbits) of the nominal 243-day orbiter mission.