Spectacular Mars Missions

On 15 July 1965, NASA’s Mariner performed the first successful flyby of Mars. Prided on as one of the great early successes of the U.S. space program, it took the first photos of another planet from deep space. (Source: NASA)

In December 1971, Soviet Union’s Mars-3 became the first successful lander on Mars, transmitting the first partial image from the planet. (Source: NASA)

On 14 November 1971, NASA’s Mariner-9 became the first successful orbiter of Mars, mapping 85% of the Martian surface and sending across over 7,000 pictures. (Source: NASA)

The first proper photograph of Mars’ surface was taken by NASA’s Viking-1 minutes after it landed in July 1976 (Source: NASA)

NASA’s Sojourner was the first rover on another planet, arriving on the Red Planet in July 1997 and operating for 84 days. (Source: NASA)