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
Transit of Phobos from Mars Lander, moving at about 2 km/s. The shadow was simultaneously imaged from the "Viking 1" Orbiter, which permitted locating the position of the lander in the orbiter pictures. Far more detailed images of the shadow were taken with the arrival in 1997 of the Mars Global Surveyor and its high-resolution Mars Orbital Camera. One such image was taken on 26 August 1999 and shows the shadow at high resolution. This image was featured in a 1 November 1999 NASA press release. By examining maps of Mars we see the shadow is centered at around 10.9°N 49.2°W. We can also look