Originally Posted by
tdracer
But heat shields are dependent on proper orientation for the heat shield to work properly
If the craft is out-of-control, the heat shield won't do much protecting.
True, however…..
I’m not sure about the fine details of Venera but I do know the reentry vehicle is roughly spherical and the Soviets had previous for designing roughly spherical shaped re-entry vehicles which simply used relative positions of CofP and CofG to ensure correct orientation, the classic example of course being the Vostok family.