# Canonical recap data for Mariner 2 Venus Flyby (1962)
# Source: https://recap.at/1962/mariner-2-venus
# Format: YAML 1.2 (UTF-8). Generated at request time.
slug: mariner-2-venus
canonicalUrl: "https://recap.at/1962/mariner-2-venus"
title: Mariner 2 Venus Flyby
subtitle: The first successful interplanetary spacecraft to reach Venus, Mariner 2 proved humans could navigate the solar system.
recapType: global_event
eventStatus: concluded
startDate: 1962-01-01
datePrecision: year
year: 1962
decade: 1960
country:
name: United States
slug: united-states
summaryShort: Mariner 2, an American space probe to Venus, was the first robotic space probe to report successfully from a planetary encounter. The first successful spacecraft in the NASA Mariner program, it was a simplified version of the Block I spacecraft of the Ranger program and an exact copy of Mariner 1. The missions of the M
summaryLong: Mariner 2, an American space probe to Venus, was the first robotic space probe to report successfully from a planetary encounter. The first successful spacecraft in the NASA Mariner program, it was a simplified version of the Block I spacecraft of the Ranger program and an exact copy of Mariner 1. The missions of the Mariner 1 and 2 spacecraft are sometimes known as the Mariner R missions. Original plans called for the probes to be launched on the Atlas-Centaur, but serious developmental problems with that vehicle forced a switch to the much smaller Agena B second stage. As such, the design of the Mariner R vehicles was greatly simplified. Far less instrumentation was carried than on the Soviet Venera probes of this period—for example, forgoing a TV camera—as the Atlas-Agena B had only half as much lift capacity as the Soviet 8K78 booster. The Mariner 2 spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral on August 27, 1962, and passed as close as 34,773 km (21,607 mi) to Venus on December 14, 1962.
heroImageUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e9/Mariner_2_Engineering_Model.jpg/1280px-Mariner_2_Engineering_Model.jpg"
heroImageCredit: Wikipedia · "Mariner 2"
importance: 72
sourceConfidence: 75
keyFacts: []
timeline: []
sources:
- url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariner_2"
  title: Mariner-Venus 1962
  provider: Wikipedia
related: []
categories:
- tech-launch
metaDescription: Mariner 2, an American space probe to Venus, was the first robotic space probe to report successfully from a planetary encounter. The first successful spacecraf
wikidataQid: Q208984
archiveSnapshots:
- url: "https://web.archive.org/web/20260612083535/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariner_2"
  capturedAt: 2026-06-12
  label: Mariner-Venus 1962
  originalUrl: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariner_2"
