\<COLOUR 1> COMMENTS: \<COLOUR 0> First of a pair of Venus probes launched in the 1981 launch window; improved instrumentation includes an imaging system that takes the first colour pictures of the Venus surface and a spectrometer to analyse the soil; the identical Venera 14, launched November 4, 1981, lands four days later; Venera 15 and 16, launched June 1983, go into orbit around Venus in the October and map it using radar.