LAUNCH CENTER

Success

Sun Jan 03 1999

United States Air Force

Mars Polar Lander

Launch Successful

LAUNCH PREVIEW

Launch Time

(8:21 PM UTC)

Launch Window Start

(8:21 PM UTC)

Launch Window End

(8:21 PM UTC)

RECOVERY OVERVIEW

Location

No Recovery Specified

Type

No Recovery Specified

Rocket Details

Name:

Delta 7425-9.5

Description:

Delta II was an expendable launch system, originally designed and built by McDonnell Douglas. Delta II was part of the Delta rocket family and entered service in 1989. Delta II vehicles included the Delta 6000, and the two later Delta 7000 variants ("Light" and "Heavy"). The rocket flew its final mission ICESat-2 on 15 September 2018, earning the launch vehicle a streak of 100 successful missions in a row, with the last failure being GPS IIR-1 in 1997.

MISSION OVERVIEW

Type: Robotic Exploration
The Mars Polar Lander, also known as the Mars Surveyor '98 Lander, was a 290-kilogram robotic spacecraft lander launched by NASA on January 3, 1999 to study the soil and climate of Planum Australe, a region near the south pole on Mars. It formed part of the Mars Surveyor '98 mission. On December 3, 1999, however, after the descent phase was expected to be complete, the lander failed to reestablish communication with Earth. A post-mortem analysis determined the most likely cause of the mishap was premature termination of the engine firing prior to the lander touching the surface, causing it to strike the planet at a high velocity.

COMPLEX OVERVIEW

Location

Cape Canaveral, FL, USA

Pad

Space Launch Complex 17B