Launch Failure

Liftoff Time (GMT)

01:11:02

Sunday May 9, 1971

Watch Replay

Official Livestream

Mission Details

Launch Notes

Damaged circuit board in Centaur resulted in control failure and engine shutdown at T+365 seconds.

Mariner 8

Wiki

Mariner-H (Mariner Mars '71), also commonly known as Mariner 8, was (along with Mariner 9) part of the Mariner Mars '71 project. It was intended to go into Mars orbit and return images and data, but a launch vehicle failure prevented Mariner 8 from achieving Earth orbit and the spacecraft reentered into the Atlantic Ocean shortly after launch.

Heliocentric Orbit

1 Payload

998 kilograms

Rocket

Retired
Atlas-SLV3C Centaur-D

Active 1967 to 1972


Stages

2

Launch Site

SLC-36A

Cape Canaveral SFS, Florida, USA

Fastest Turnaround

46 days 2 hours

Stats

Atlas-Centaur


23rd

Mission

2nd

Mission of 1971

1971


45th

Orbital launch attempt