History of Red Planet Day

Red Planet Day is celebrated on November 28 as it commemorates the launch of the Spacecraft Mariner 4 by NASA in 1964, which was the first craft to ever reach Mars.

It took almost eight full months for the craft to reach the red planet, finally performing a fly-by on July 14, 1965.

The Mariner 4 spacecraft was designed to gain information in fly-by mode that allowed for planetary exploration and closeup scientific observations of the planet Mars, then transmitting the information back to humans on Earth.

Many things have been learned about Mars in the years since the space program has been able to gather information. For instance, it is now understood that, like Earth, the Red Planet has a terrain that is varied, including canyons, volcanoes, deserts, polar ice caps and seasons.