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Mission record

Sputnik 22

Also known as 1962 Beta Iota 1, Korabl 11, Mars 1962A, Sputnik 29 (USNSC), Sputnik22, 2MV-4 No.3

U.S.S.R · Launched

Explore trajectory

Failed · Failure

An attempted Soviet Mars flyby mission, which NSSDCA describes as presumably similar to the Mars 1 mission launched 8 days later. The spacecraft and attached upper stage, with a total mass of 6500 kg, were launched by an SL-6 into a 180 x 485 km Earth parking orbit with an inclination of 64.9 degrees and either broke up as they were going into Earth orbit or had the upper stage explode in orbit during the burn to put the spacecraft into Mars trajectory. The spacecraft broke into many pieces, some of which apparently remained in Earth orbit for a few days.

Destinations
Launch vehicle
Modified SS-6 (Sapwood) with 2nd Generation Upper Stage + Escape Stage
Launch site
Tyuratam (Baikonur Cosmodrome), U.S.S.R
Countries
Soviet Union
Mission types
Flyby

Chronology

Mission timeline

  1. Launch

    Launched into Earth parking orbit, where the vehicle broke up

    NSSDCA's launch/orbital information page gives the launch date and time as 1962-10-24T17:55:04Z and an Earth orbit with a periapsis of 180.00 km, an apoapsis of 485.00 km, a period of 91.20 minutes and an inclination of 64.900°. The master catalog records that the spacecraft and attached upper stage, with a total mass of 6500 kg, were launched by an SL-6 into a 180 x 485 km Earth parking orbit with an inclination of 64.9 degrees and either broke up as they were going into Earth orbit or had the upper stage explode in orbit during the burn to put the spacecraft into Mars trajectory. In either case, the spacecraft broke into many pieces, some of which apparently remained in Earth orbit for a few days.

    Earth

  2. Mission end

    Orbit decayed

    NSSDCA's launch/orbital information page gives a decay date of 1962-10-29 and ends the Earth-orbit epoch at 1962-10-29 00:00:00. Recorded at day precision because that is the precision the page publishes for the decay.

    Earth

Mission architecture

Vehicles

  • Sputnik 22 · Spacecraft

    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