Status
Success
Mars 3
Launch Time
Fri May 28, 1971 15:26 UTC
Fri May 28, 1971 15:26 UTC
First probe to land successfully on Mars.
Rocket
Mission Details
Mars 3
Mars 3 was a robotic space probe of the Soviet Mars program, launched May 28, 1971, nine days after its twin spacecraft Mars 2. The probes were identical robotic spacecraft launched by Proton-K rockets with a Blok D upper stage, each consisting of an orbiter and an attached lander. After the Mars 2 lander crashed on the Martian surface, the Mars 3 lander became the first spacecraft to attain a soft landing on Mars, on December 2, 1971. It failed 110 seconds after landing, having transmitted only a gray image with no details. The Mars 2 orbiter and Mars 3 orbiter continued to circle Mars and transmit images back to Earth for another eight months.
Payloads: 1
Total Mass: 4,650.0 kg
Heliocentric Orbit
Location
Site 81/23, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan
Stats
1971
53rd orbital launch attempt
Proton-K
29th mission
4th mission of 1971
17th successful mission
2nd consecutive successful mission