Exploration of Mars failed upon impact. Mars 4 flew by the planet at a range of 2200 km returning one swath of pictures and radio occultation data, which constituted the first detection of the nightside ionosphere on Mars. Mars 7 probe separated prematurely from the carrying vehicle due to a problem in the operation of one of the onboard systems (attitude control or retro-rockets) and missed the planet by . In 1964, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory made two attempts at reaching Mars. Mariner 3 and Mariner 4 were identical spacecraft designed to carry out the first flybys of Mars. Mariner 3 was launched
Space probe (first weather balloons deployed on another planet) at Venus before their rendezvous with Halley's Comet. This Japanese probe was the first non-US, non-Soviet interplanetary probe. A second Japanese probe, it made ultraviolet wavelength observations of the comet. The first space probe to penetrate a comet's coma and take close-up images of its nucleus. First solar wind sample return probe from sun-earth L1. First sample return probe from a comet tail. First probe to land on an asteroid. First sample return probe to launch from an asteroid. The Rosetta space probe flew by two asteroids and made a rendezvous and orbited