Mars mission: List of successes and failures

, Sept 24: The first attempt ever to reach the

was made by the erstwhile USSR in 1960 but the satellite which was launched could not get far from Planet Earth. The USA made the first successful mission in 1964 when a flyby satellite named Mariner 4 beamed 21 images of the Red Planet's surface back to Earth. The first American

to have succeeded in the Mars mission was in May 1971.

More than half of the 41 attempts to reach the Mars that have been made since then have failed due to reasons like rocket malfunction, radio problems, fuel trouble and landing issues.

India became the third country in Asia to have attempted to reach the Mars after Japan and China. Japan's attempt was a failure, which made India the first Asian country to succeed in its maiden Mars attempt.

Here is a breakdown of successful and failed attempts:

United States: 15 successful attempts, 4 failures

Erstwhile USSR: 2 successful attempts, 14 failures

Russia: 2 failures

European Space Agency: 1 success

Japan: 1 failure

China: 1 failure

India: 1 success

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