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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

A Soviet Mars mission that was never officially announced but has since been identified as a planned orbiter, the first of two identical M-69 class probes launched in the spring of 1969. The nominal mission plan was to put the spacecraft into a 1700 x 34,000 km capture orbit around Mars with an inclination of 40 degrees and a period of 24 hours, then lower the periapsis to 500 to 700 km for a nominal three month session of imaging and data collection from orbit. After successful operation of the first two stages, the third stage of the 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.

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.

    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

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 2, 2026