The Secret Landings on Mars

After the United States first put a man on the Moon and the Soviet Union landed a rover that could freely move across its surface, the USSR’s next goal would be more ambitious: to finally touch down on Mars. The Soviets had been developing a space program to send a rover to Mars since 1960. But it wasn’t until the launch of Mars 2 in 1971 that they were close to achieving their objective. However, the rover crashed on the planet after a landing malfunction. The mission was shortly followed by Mars 3, which completed its goal of becoming the first spacecraft to land on the red planet and capture footage of its rocky surface.