1960–Present · Complete History
Every mission to Mars from humanity's first attempts in 1960 to the active rovers and orbiters operating today. Flybys, orbiters, landers, rovers — the successes, partial successes, and failures that shaped our understanding of the Red Planet.
| Year | Mission | Agency | Type | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 | Mars 1960A / 1960B | USSR | Flyby | Launch failure |
| 1962 | Mars 1 | USSR | Flyby | Lost contact |
| 1964 | Mariner 3 / 4 | NASA | Flyby | Mariner 4: first Mars flyby ✓ |
| 1969 | Mariner 6 / 7 | NASA | Flyby | Success ✓ |
| 1971 | Mariner 9 | NASA | Orbiter | First Mars orbiter ✓ |
| 1971 | Mars 2 / 3 | USSR | Orbiter + Lander | Mars 3: first soft landing (20s contact) |
| 1975 | Viking 1 / 2 | NASA | Orbiter + Lander | First successful landers ✓ |
| 1988 | Phobos 1 / 2 | USSR | Orbiter | Both failed |
| 1992 | Mars Observer | NASA | Orbiter | Lost before orbit |
| 1996 | Mars Global Surveyor | NASA | Orbiter | Success — 10 years ✓ |
| 1996 | Mars Pathfinder + Sojourner | NASA | Lander + Rover | First rover on Mars ✓ |
| 1998 | Mars Climate Orbiter | NASA | Orbiter | Unit conversion error |
| 1999 | Mars Polar Lander | NASA | Lander | Crash landing |
| 2001 | Mars Odyssey | NASA | Orbiter | Still operational ✓ |
| 2003 | Mars Express | ESA | Orbiter | Still operational ✓ |
| 2003 | Beagle 2 | ESA/UK | Lander | Panels failed to deploy |
| 2004 | Spirit | NASA | Rover | 6+ years, 7.73 km ✓ |
| 2004 | Opportunity | NASA | Rover | 14+ years, 45.16 km ✓ |
| 2005 | Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter | NASA | Orbiter | Still operational ✓ |
| 2007 | Phoenix | NASA | Lander | Confirmed water ice ✓ |
| 2011 | Fobos-Grunt / Yinghuo-1 | Russia/China | Orbiter + Sample | Stranded in Earth orbit |
| 2012 | Curiosity | NASA | Rover | Active · 13+ years ✓ |
| 2013 | MAVEN | NASA | Orbiter | Still operational ✓ |
| 2013 | Mangalyaan (MOM) | ISRO | Orbiter | India's first Mars mission ✓ |
| 2016 | ExoMars TGO + Schiaparelli | ESA/Roscosmos | Orbiter + Lander | Orbiter ✓ / Lander crashed |
| 2018 | InSight | NASA | Lander | First Mars seismometer ✓ |
| 2021 | Perseverance + Ingenuity | NASA | Rover + Helicopter | Active · first Mars flight ✓ |
| 2021 | Tianwen-1 + Zhurong | CNSA | Orbiter + Rover | Orbiter active / Rover hibernating |
| 2021 | Hope (Al-Amal) | UAE | Orbiter | Mission complete 2024 ✓ |
| TBD | ExoMars Rosalind Franklin | ESA | Rover | Pending — redesigned post-Russia |
| TBD | Mars Sample Return | NASA/ESA | Lander + MAV + Orbiter | In development |
Mars has historically been one of the most difficult destinations in the solar system. Roughly half of all missions have failed, leading engineers to speak of a "Mars Curse" or "Great Galactic Ghoul" that devours spacecraft. The failure rate has improved dramatically in recent decades — since 2000, most missions have succeeded — but Mars remains unforgiving. The thin atmosphere is thick enough to generate extreme heating during entry but too thin for parachutes alone to slow a heavy lander, requiring complex Entry, Descent and Landing (EDL) sequences that must execute autonomously.
The next major missions to Mars include ESA's Rosalind Franklin rover (the first European rover, carrying a 2-metre drill to search for subsurface life signs), the Mars Sample Return campaign to bring Perseverance's cached samples to Earth, and various proposals for human missions in the 2030s–2040s from NASA and commercial providers including SpaceX.