Launch of Mariner 3

Mariner 3 was an American space probe meant to fly past Mars and send back the first close-up photographs of the planet. It was launched on an Atlas-Agena rocket, but the fairing that protected the spacecraft during launch failed to separate properly, so the probe could not deploy its solar panels and had no power for long. It lost contact with Earth and drifted into orbit around the Sun, without reaching Mars. The failure was investigated, and the fairing was redesigned in time for the launch of the twin spacecraft Mariner 4 only weeks later, which completed the first successful flyby of Mars in the following year.

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