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Mission record

Mariner 8

Also known as Mariner-H, MARIN-H, PL-712A, Mars '71

NASA-Office of Space Science Applications · Launched

Explore trajectory

Failed · Failure

Mariner-H, also commonly known as Mariner 8, was (along with Mariner 9) part of the Mariner Mars 71 project. It was intended to go into Mars orbit and return images and data: the project consisted of two spacecraft, Mariners H and I, each of which would be inserted into a Martian orbit and would perform a separate but complementary mission, orbiting Mars a minimum of 90 days and covering approximately 70 percent of the planetary surface. The Centaur upper stage began to oscillate in pitch and tumbled out of control, and the spacecraft fell into the Atlantic Ocean. Some of the objectives of the Mariner-H mission were successfully added to the Mariner-I (Mariner 9) mission profile.

Destinations
Launch vehicle
Atlas-Centaur
Launch site
Cape Canaveral, United States
Countries
United States
Mission types
Orbiter

Chronology

Mission timeline

  1. Milestone

    Payload separated during Centaur tumbling

    The original project report interprets loss of payload channel 13 at Centaur main engine start plus 86 seconds as payload separation. An exact calendar clock, relative separation vector and post-separation array state are not supplied.

    Earth

  2. Mission end

    Centaur tumbled and the spacecraft fell into the Atlantic

    The original project report records loss of pitch control after Centaur main engine start, tumbling and payload separation. Payload data ended at engine-start plus 86 seconds and initial engine shutdown followed two seconds later. Impact occurred approximately 600 seconds after launch, about 1665 km downrange and 560 km northwest of Puerto Rico. The approximate impact and unresolved absolute engine-start clock are retained without inventing a precise endpoint.

    Earth

  3. Launch

    Launched on an Atlas-Centaur SLV-3C (AC-24)

    JPL Technical Report 32-1550, Volume I, printed page 51 records launch from Complex 36A at 01:11:02.294 GMT. This original project clock refines the earlier catalog time; its decimal precision does not establish equivalent absolute clock accuracy.

    Earth

Mission architecture

Vehicles

  • Mariner 8 · Orbiter

    Destinations: Mars

Trajectory record

Trajectory dataset not yet available

Known dates and encounters do not uniquely determine a flight path. This mission’s sourced timeline is available above; no verified trajectory is currently published here.

What is needed to reconstruct this path?
  • A frame-qualified position and vector velocity at an epoch, or equivalent complete orbital elements.
  • Finer event-time constraints where required by an orbital reconstruction; the stored day/month/year precision is retained.
  • The actual failed-flight state history. Intended destinations are not evidence that the spacecraft reached them.

Provenance

Sources

Each source is listed once and labeled with the mission, event, trajectory, or destination/body context it supports.

Data verified through September 14, 2026