Recovered October 7, 1964 7:28 GMT. Officially: Investigation of the upper atmosphere and outer space. References: 2, 6, 376.

Coming before the two-man Gemini flights, Voskhod 1 had a significant worldwide impact. In the United States, the "space race" was again running under the green flag. NASA Administrator James E. Webb, commenting on the spectacular, called it a "significant space accomplishment." It was, he said, "a clear indication that the Russians are continuing a large space program for the achievement of national power and prestige." Additional Details: Voskhod 1. References: 2, 6, 16, 32, 33, 60, 360.

1. A major review of the entire LEM program (with especial emphasis upon the fiscal picture for 1965 and 1966)
2. Start of production on LEM-1 (the first LEM flight article)
3. Delivery of LEM Test Article (LTA)-2 (a dynamic test article) to Huntsville
4. Start of vibration and static testing on the complete LEM structure
5. Sea level and altitude qualification testing in the continuing development of the LEM's propulsion systems.

After a 228 day cruise, the spacecraft flew by Mars on July 14 and 15, 1965. Planetary science mode was turned on at 15:41:49 GMT on 14 July. The camera sequence started at 00:18:36 GMT on July 15 and 21 pictures plus 21 lines of a 22nd picture were taken. The images covered a discontinuous swath of Mars starting near 40 N, 170 E, down to about 35 S, 200 E, and then across to the terminator at 50 S, 255 E, representing about 1% of the planet's surface. The closest approach was 9,846 km from the Martian surface at 01:00:57 GMT 15 July 1965. The images taken during the flyby were stored in the onboard tape recorder. At 02:19:11 GMT Mariner 4 passed behind Mars as seen from Earth and the radio signal ceased. The signal was reacquired at 03:13:04 GMT when the spacecraft reappeared. Cruise mode was then re-established. Transmission of the taped images to Earth began about 8.5 hours after signal reacquisition and continued until 3 August. All images were transmitted twice to insure no data was missing or corrupt.

The spacecraft performed all programmed activities successfully and returned useful data from launch until 22:05:07 GMT on 1 October 1965, when the distance from Earth (309.2 million km) and the antenna orientation temporarily halted signal acquisition. In 1967 Mariner 4 returned to the vicinity of Earth again and engineers decided to use the ageing craft for a series of operational and telemetry tests to improve their knowledge of the technologies that would be needed for future interplanetary spacecraft. The cosmic dust detector registered 17 hits in a 15 minute span on 15 September, part of an apparent micrometeoroid shower which temporarily changed the spacecraft attitude and probably slightly damaged the thermal shield. On 7 December the gas supply in the attitude control system was exhausted, and on December 10 and 11 a total of 83 micrometeoroid hits were recorded which caused perturbation of the attitude and degradation of the signal strength. On 21 December 1967 communications with Mariner 4 were terminated.

Results

The total data returned by the mission was 5.2 million bits. All experiments operated successfully with the exception of the ionization chamber/Geiger counter which failed in February, 1965 and the plasma probe, which had its performance degraded by a resistor failure on 6 December 1964. The images returned showed a Moon-like cratered terrain (which later missions showed was not typical for Mars, but only for the more ancient region imaged by Mariner 4). A surface atmospheric pressure of 4.1 to 7.0 mb was estimated and no magnetic field was detected. References: 2, 6, 278, 296.

Altitudes to between 18 and 21 m (60 and 70 ft) and flight duration up to three minutes were attained. Additional Details: Six flights of the Apollo Lunar Landing Research Vehicle. References: 16.

• a computer memory of 4096 words
• the provision for in-flight null bias gyro drift compensation
• a general purpose input output device
• Bell 3B accelerometers
• input registers for rendezvous radar information such that a future interface could be mechanized if desired
• an interface between the primary navigation and guidance system (PNGS) and the AGS for position and velocity updating of the AGS from the PNGS.

1. Research on the samples to support succeeding Apollo flights.
2. Sorting and distribution of lunar samples to the scientific community.