On November 26th, NASA’s Insight mission will land on Mars. That’s the plan anyway. Something like half of all Mars missions have failed, usually well before they approached the Red Planet, either because of launch failure or some error on its outward trip. While space agencies’ records have improved, especially over the last decade, Mars is littered with spacecraft that didn’t quite stick the landing — or, in some cases, orbital insertion. Here are some of the highlights.
Mars 3 sent back this first -- and its only -- image of Mars' surface. What it saw is anyone's guess. (Credit: Soviet Academy of Sciences)
Mars 3 sent back this first — and its only — image of Mars’ surface. What it saw is anyone’s guess. (Credit: Soviet Academy of Sciences)
