Mars 96

Mars-8

Mission Profile

Mars 96 (Mars-8) was an ambitious Russian Mars orbiter and lander mission launched on 16 November 1996 aboard a Proton-K, which failed catastrophically when its Blok D upper stage malfunctioned and the 6.8-tonne spacecraft reentered and crashed in Bolivia and Chile. The mission carried an extraordinary international science payload including surface penetrators and small landers contributed by Germany, France, Finland, and other nations, making its failure one of the greatest losses in planetary science history. Mars 96 was Russia's last interplanetary mission for over a decade, a devastating setback that contributed to Russia's extended absence from Mars exploration. Many of the instruments and science objectives planned for Mars 96 were repurposed for ESA's Mars Express, which launched successfully in 2003.