Mars 1M No.1, designated ''Mars 1960A'' by NASA analysts and dubbed ''Marsnik 1'' by the Western media, was the first

spacecraft A spacecraft is a vehicle or machine designed to fly in outer space. A type of artificial satellite, spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, Earth observation, meteorology, navigation, space colonization, p ...

launched as part of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

Mars program The Mars program was a series of uncrewed spacecraft launched by the Soviet Union between 1960 and 1973. The spacecraft were intended to explore Mars, and included flyby probes, landers and orbiters. Early Mars spacecraft were small, and launche ...

me. A

Mars 1M Mars 1M was a series of two uncrewed spacecraft which were used in the first Soviet missions to explore Mars. They were the earliest missions of the Mars program. The Western media dubbed the spacecraft "''Marsnik''", a portmanteau of ''Mars'' and ...

spacecraft, it was intended for conducting flight testing system and to study the interplanetary environment between Earth and

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...

, however it was lost in a launch failure before it could begin its mission.

Launch

Mars 1M No.1 was the payload of the Molniya 8K78 rocket's maiden flight. The rocket, which had serial number L1-4M, was a new derivative of the R-7 series, with a Blok-I third stage replacing the Blok-E used on the

Vostok Vostok refers to east in Russian but may also refer to: Spaceflight * Vostok programme, Soviet human spaceflight project * Vostok (spacecraft), a type of spacecraft built by the Soviet Union * Vostok (rocket family), family of rockets derived from ...

, and a new Blok-L fourth stage. The vehicle lifted off from Site 1/5 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 14:27:49 UTC on 10 October 1960.

Scientific Instruments

* Ultraviolet Spectrometer * Radiation Detector * Cosmic-Ray Detector * Television Imaging System (Removed) * Spectroreflectometer (Removed) Television Imaging System and Spectroreflectometer were removed due to mass constraints.

End of mission

It was determined that during the course of the second stage of flight, resonant vibration in the third stage of the

rocket A rocket (from it, rocchetto, , bobbin/spool) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely fr ...

caused the malfunction of a gyroscope and it damaged the

attitude control system Spacecraft attitude control is the process of controlling the orientation of a spacecraft (vehicle/satellite) with respect to an inertial frame of reference or another entity such as the celestial sphere, certain fields, and nearby objects, et ...

of the carrier rocket. Following this issue, the horizon sensor disconnected from the

booster Booster may refer to: Amusement rides * Booster (Fabbri ride), a pendulum ride * Booster (HUSS ride), an evolution of the Breakdance ride * Booster (KMG ride), a pendulum ride Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters * Booster, a cha ...

and the rocket descended from its normal flight path angle. As a consequence the rocket's third stage was commanded to stop ignition after five minutes of flight. During this stage the

flew to an altitude of before re-entry. Thereafter, the spacecraft re-entered and disintegrated in LEO and its debris fell over

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive region, geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a ...

down range. It failed to achieve low earth orbit.

References

1960 in the Soviet Union Spacecraft launched in 1960 Satellite launch failures Mars program Space accidents and incidents in the Soviet Union {{USSR-spacecraft-stub

Launch

Scientific Instruments

End of mission

See also

References