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Mission record

Mars 5

Also known as M-73 No.53S, Mars5

U.S.S.R · Launched

Explore trajectory

Partial success · Partial success

The second of the four Soviet spacecraft launched towards Mars in July and August of 1973. The Mars 5 automatic station was designed to orbit Mars and return information on the composition, structure and properties of the martian atmosphere and surface, and was also designed to act as a communications link to the Mars 6 and 7 landers. The orbiter operated only a few days and returned atmospheric data and images of a small portion of the martian southern hemisphere: it collected data for 22 orbits until a loss of pressurization in the transmitter housing ended the mission, returning about 60 images over a nine day period.

Destinations
Launch vehicle
Proton Booster Plus Upper Stage and Escape Stages
Launch site
Tyuratam (Baikonur Cosmodrome), U.S.S.R
Countries
Soviet Union
Mission types
Orbiter

Chronology

Mission timeline

  1. Launch

    Launched into Earth orbit by a Proton SL-12/D-1-e

    NSSDCA's launch/orbital information page gives the launch date and time as 1973-07-25T18:55:48Z and an Earth orbit with a periapsis of 159.00 km, an apoapsis of 174.00 km, a period of 87.80 minutes and an inclination of 51.600°. Mars 5 was launched into Earth orbit by a Proton SL-12/D-1-e booster, and propelled from its orbital platform into a Mars transfer trajectory at 20:15 UT on 25 July 1973. The fully fueled launch mass of the orbiter was 3440 kg.

    Earth

  2. Milestone

    Mid-course correction burns

    Mid-course correction burns were made on 3 August 1973 and 2 February 1974.

  3. Orbit insertion

    Inserted into an elliptical orbit about Mars

    The spacecraft reached Mars on 12 February 1974 at 15:44:25 UT and was inserted into an elliptical 1755 km x 32,555 km, 24 hr, 53 min. orbit with an inclination of 35.3 degrees. NSSDCA's launch/orbital information page records the same orbit as 1755.00 x 32555.00 km at 24.88 hours and 35.330°, beginning at 1974-02-12 15:45:00, which is not the second the master catalog prints; this record follows the master catalog.

    Mars

  4. Mission end

    Last communication after depressurization

    The later NASA chronology dates the last communication and final panorama transmission to February 28, 1974. Pressure then fell below the working level. NSSDCA describes a shorter nine-day science interval; that summary is retained as a different measure of activity, not a precise end-of-contact clock.

    Mars

Mission architecture

Vehicles

  • Mars 5 · 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.
  • Approach/departure directions and burn vectors between the reported encounters; body names and encounter distances alone are insufficient.
  • Finer event-time constraints where required by an orbital reconstruction; the stored day/month/year precision is retained.

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