Ranger 5 was scheduled for launch in June 1962, but NASA instead decided to fly the Mariner Venus probes (basically modified Block I Rangers) first which gave more time to work out problems with the spacecraft. After Mariner 1 ended its mission in the Atlantic Ocean instead of interplanetary space, the agency started coming under increased scrutiny from Congress due to its apparent inability to have any kind of success with planetary probes. Republican Congressman James Fulton confronted NASA Director of the Office of Programs J.J. Wyatt, noting that Mariner 1 had cost U.S. taxpayers $14 million and that there was no excuse at this point for failures every launch. As July 1962 ended, there had been 12 planetary probe attempts going back to 1958 and only two (Pioneer 4 and Pioneer 5) accomplished all of their mission goals. It might have been small consolation that Soviet planetary probe efforts during this time were little more successful, but all of their failures were kept secret, so the Soviets did not have to answer to their public about the waste of tax money on failed space missions.