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Mission record

Mariner 2

Also known as P 38, 1962 Alpha Rho 1, Mariner R-2, Mariner-Venus 1962, Mariner2

NASA-Office of Space Science Applications · Launched

Explore trajectory

Completed · Success

The backup for the failed Mariner 1 mission and, in NSSDCA's words, the first spacecraft to successfully encounter another planet. Its objective was to fly by Venus and return data on the planet's atmosphere, magnetic field, charged particle environment and mass, and to measure the interplanetary medium during the cruise. It approached Venus from 30 degrees above the dark side and passed below the planet at its closest distance of 34,773 km on 14 December 1962. NSSDCA credits it with finding a slow retrograde rotation rate for Venus, hot surface temperatures and high surface pressures, a predominantly carbon dioxide atmosphere, continuous cloud cover with a top altitude of about 60 km, and no detectable magnetic field.

Destinations
Launch vehicle
Atlas-Agena B
Launch site
Cape Canaveral, United States
Countries
United States
Mission types
Flyby

Chronology

Mission timeline

  1. Launch

    Launched from Cape Canaveral on an Atlas-Agena B

    NSSDCA's launch/orbital information page gives the launch date and time as 1962-08-27T06:53:14Z. The master catalog records that after launch and termination of the Agena first burn the Agena-Mariner was in a 118 km altitude Earth parking orbit, and that the Agena second burn some 980 seconds later, followed by separation, injected Mariner 2 into a geocentric escape hyperbola at 26 minutes 3 seconds after lift-off.

    Earth

  2. Flyby

    Passed Venus at 34,773 km

    The master catalog records that Mariner 2 approached Venus from 30 degrees above the dark side of the planet, and passed below the planet at its closest distance of 34,773 km at 19:59:28 UT 14 December 1962. The launch/orbital information page gives the same closest approach time, 1962-12-14 19:59:28, and the two pages disagree on the distance rather than agreeing: that page states the periapsis as 5.71 RV against its own definition 1 RV = 6052 km. The record carries the master catalog's figure in km, which is the one published as a distance.

    Venus

  3. Loss of contact

    Last transmission received

    The master catalog records that the last transmission from Mariner 2 was received on 3 January 1963 at 07:00 UT and that Mariner 2 remains in heliocentric orbit. The launch/orbital information page prints that same date under a heading that does not describe it, as Decay Date: 1963-01-03, for a spacecraft its own trajectory rows put in solar orbit with no epoch stop.

Mission architecture

Vehicles

  • Mariner 2 · Spacecraft

    Destinations: Venus

Trajectory record

Trajectory dataset not yet available

No verified trajectory dataset is committed for this mission, so Mission Atlas renders no path.

Provenance

Sources

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

Data verified through September 3, 2026