The Launch of Mariner 3

The Mariner-Mars 1964 project was officially approved by NASA in early November 1962 over a month before NASA ’s first interplanetary spacecraft, Mariner 2 , successfully encountered Venus on December 14 .

Mariner C and D would perform observations of Mars during a flyby including securing the first close up images of its surface.

This would be the first time NASA would use the Atlas-Agena D for one of its missions.

Launch Complex 12 and 13 at Cape Kennedy were chosen to support the Mariner-Mars 1964 launches.

Launch of Mariner D would use Atlas 288D and Agena 6932 to send spacecraft MC-3 to Mars .

Mariner C lifted off from LC-13 on November 5, 1964 at 19:22:05 GMT .

The spacecraft had exceeded escape velocity but the velocity shortfall exceeded Mariner ’s course correction capability by a significant margin.

Mariner 4 successfully lifted off from LC-12 on November 28, 1964 at 19:22:01 GMT .

Two days later , the Soviet Union launched Zond 2 towards Mars with objectives that have only been fully revealed recently (see “Zond 2: Old Mysteries Solved & New Questions Raised”).