Why the number changes depending on who counts
Ask three sources how many missions have gone to Mars and you can get three answers. Some count only craft that reached Mars. Some leave out the early Soviet failures that never left Earth orbit. Some count a lander and its orbiter as one mission, others as two. This page counts everything that left the ground aimed at Mars, and gives two numbers: 48 launches and 53 missions.
The difference between them is real. When Beagle 2 and Mars Express went up together, that was one launch and two missions. Perseverance carried the Ingenuity helicopter, which made 72 flights on its own goals and schedule. Each is its own project with its own team, so each gets a row.
Why there are two numbers
A launch is one rocket leaving Earth. A mission is one project with its own team and its own goals. Most launches carry one mission, but 5 of them carried more. Mars Polar Lander with Deep Space 2, Mars Express with Beagle 2 and Phobos-Grunt with Yinghuo-1 are examples. We give both numbers so nobody has to guess which one a headline means.
When they flew
All projectsFull successes
The 1960s were the busiest decade, with 12 missions. Mars launch windows open about every 26 months, which is why missions arrive in clusters rather than evenly through the year.
What kind of missions
Orbiters watch from above and landers and rovers work on the surface. 40% of Mars missions carried something meant to land.
The latest launches
| Mission | Launched | Country | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| ESCAPADE | November 13, 2025 | United States | Pending |
| Ingenuity | July 30, 2020 | United States | Success |
| Mars 2020 | July 30, 2020 | United States | Success |
| Tianwen-1 | July 23, 2020 | China | Success |
| Emirates Mars Mission | July 19, 2020 | United Arab Emirates | Success |
| Mars Cube One | May 5, 2018 | United States | Success |
A scheduled launch isn't counted until it has happened.
Launch windows set the pace
Missions bunch up because Earth and Mars are placed for the most energy-efficient trip only about once every 26 months. Each window is a deadline, and a missed one means waiting more than two years. That's why the 1960s hold the most missions and why a year can pass with none. The travel time page shows how long the trip takes once a spacecraft is on its way, and the Mars opposition page shows when the planet is closest to Earth.
What the early years looked like
The earliest launches were mostly Soviet, and most failed before reaching Earth orbit or soon after, which is why the first two decades produce plenty of missions and few results. The first success was Mariner 4, which flew past on July 14, 1965. The first craft to go into orbit was Mariner 9 on November 14, 1971. Both are in the full table.
How they came out
Of the 52 missions with a final result, 22 fully succeeded, 8 partly succeeded and 22 failed. The count runs through October 19, 2026. Mars Global Surveyor, launched on November 7, 1996, kept working until contact was lost on November 2, 2006. The reasons for the shift from loss to success, and what the percentages leave out, are on the success rate page.
What hasn't happened yet
ESCAPADE, a pair of NASA orbiters launched on November 13, 2025, hasn't reached Mars yet, so it's counted as a mission with no grade. A scheduled launch isn't a launch: JAXA's Martian Moons eXploration mission, MMX, is scheduled for October 20, 2026 (Japan time), and it'll be added to the count only after it has lifted off.
If you only count craft that reached Mars
The totals above include every mission that left the ground aimed at Mars. If you count only the ones that got as far as Mars or its approach, you drop the 15 that were lost at launch, stranded in Earth orbit or lost on the way, and the one still traveling. That leaves 37. Neither figure is wrong. They answer different questions.
Who sent them
The United States accounts for 26 of the 53 missions and the Soviet Union / Russia for 19. Every other program has far fewer, and several have one or two. The spread by decade, counting missions, runs 1960s: 12, 1970s: 11, 1980s: 2, 1990s: 8, 2000s: 7, 2010s: 8 and 2020s: 5. The countries page sorts them by what each achieved.
Going back to the first
The oldest missions on the list are also the least certain, because the Soviet Union said nothing about launches that failed. Where sources agree a launch happened, it's counted, with the label NASA and historians gave it. The reasons for each loss are on Mars missions that failed.
The newest launches
The six most recent entries, newest first, are ESCAPADE (November 13, 2025), Ingenuity (July 30, 2020), Mars 2020 (July 30, 2020), Tianwen-1 (July 23, 2020), Emirates Mars Mission (July 19, 2020) and Mars Cube One (May 5, 2018). Four of the six left Earth in the July 2020 window, and their arrivals came within nine days of each other: Hope entered orbit on February 9, 2021, Tianwen-1 on February 10, 2021, and Perseverance landed on February 18, 2021.
The helicopter
Ingenuity rode to Mars on Perseverance as a technology demonstration, planned for up to five test flights over 30 days. It made 72 flights before its final flight on January 18, 2024, and it has its own row because it had its own team and goals.
How much of the list is landing
21 of the 53 missions carried something meant to land. That's 40% of the list, and it's the part with the highest losses, as the failures page describes.
Questions people ask
How many missions have gone to Mars?
48 launches and 53 missions, counted through October 19, 2026.
How many have worked?
22 of the 52 Mars missions with a final result succeeded fully and 8 partly succeeded.
Why are there more missions than launches?
Some launches carried two or more separately managed missions, like a lander that rode with an orbiter, a technology demonstration, or a pair of small cubesats.