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Mission record

Mars 1969A

Also known as Mars 69A, Mars1969A, M-69 No.521

U.S.S.R · Launched

Explore trajectory

Failed · Failure

The first orbiter-only M-69 Mars attempt. Its planned lander was removed before launch. The Proton third-stage turbopump caught fire, and the spacecraft was lost before reaching Earth orbit. NSSDCA gives shutdown atT+438.66 seconds and the later NASA chronology gives 438.46 seconds; the intended Mars orbit was never reached.

Destinations
Launch vehicle
Proton Booster Plus Upper Stage
Launch site
Tyuratam (Baikonur Cosmodrome), Kazakhstan
Countries
Soviet Union
Mission types
Orbiter

Chronology

Mission timeline

  1. Mission end

    Third stage caught fire and exploded

    After successful operation of the first two stages, the third stage of the Proton SL-12/D-1-e (8K82K, #240-01 + 11S824) launcher experienced a malfunction in a rotor bearing which caused the turbopump to catch fire. The engine shut down 438.66 seconds after launch and exploded, the remains of the craft landing in the Altai mountains. The later NASA chronology gives 438.46 seconds rather than 438.66 seconds. The difference is retained instead of asserting a more precise absolute failure clock.

    Earth

  2. Launch

    Launched from Tyuratam

    NSSDCA's launch/orbital information page gives the launch date and time as 1969-03-27T10:40:45Z and a decay date of 1969-03-27, and prints no trajectory details. The payload was an M-69 class probe (#521) with a launch mass of 4850 kg.

    Earth

Mission architecture

Vehicles

  • Mars 1969A · 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