Tuesday, October 27, 2026

1971-05-30 · 55 years ago

Mariner 9 — launch

Date in UTC

Mariner 9 (Mariner Mars '71 / Mariner-I) was a robotic spacecraft that contributed greatly to the exploration of Mars and was part of the NASA Mariner program. Mariner 9 was launched toward Mars on May 30, 1971, from LC-36B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, and reached the planet on November 14 of the same year, becoming the first spacecraft to orbit another planet – only narrowly beating the Soviet probes Mars 2 (launched May 19) and Mars 3 (launched May 28), both of which arrived at Mars only weeks later. After the occurrence of dust storms on the planet for several months following its arrival, the orbiter managed to send back clear pictures of the surface.

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariner_9. Related NASA reference: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/mariner-9/. 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
Mariner 9
Organization
NASA Lewis Research Center
Vehicle
Atlas SLV-3C Centaur
Location
Cape Canaveral Air Station, Florida
Country
US
Outcome
Successful

Context and qualifications

Launch code: DS. Source references: JPL-TR-32-1550; -.

Sources and attribution

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