Tuesday, October 27, 2026

1962-11-04 · 64 years ago

2MV-3 No. 1 — launch

Date in UTC

Mars 2MV-3 No.1 also known as Sputnik 24 in the West, was a Soviet spacecraft, which was launched in 1962 as part of the Mars program, and was intended to land on the surface of Mars. Due to a problem with the rocket which launched it, it did not depart low Earth orbit, and it decayed several days later. It was the only Mars 2MV-3 spacecraft to be launched. The spacecraft was launched at 15:35:15 UTC on 4 November 1962, atop a Molniya 8K78 carrier rocket flying from Site 1/5 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. About 260 seconds into the flight, the oxidiser pressurisation system malfunctioned, resulting in cavitation within the feed lines and turbopump.

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik_24. Original timeline Wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik_program. Related NASA reference: https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/chronology.html#1962. Description adapted from Wikipedia contributors (CC BY-SA 4.0; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).

Category
Launches and Flight Tests
Type
Orbital launch
Subjects
Space transportation
Mission
2MV-3 No. 1
Organization
Strategic Rocket Forces
Vehicle
Molniya 8K78
Location
NIIP-5, Baykonur, Kazakstan
Country
SU
Outcome
Partially successful

Context and qualifications

Launch code: OF40. Source references: KIAM; -. Cavitation in S2 caused S4 fail

Sources and attribution

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