Every mission to Mars

Mars 1M No. 1 and No. 2 · 1960

OKB-1 (USSR) · FlybyFailure

Two spacecraft, two launch failures, on 10 and 14 October 1960. Neither reached Earth orbit, and the USSR never acknowledged either flight; almost everything known about them comes from Western tracking and from post-Soviet memoirs.

Sputnik 22, Mars 1 and Sputnik 24 · 1962

OKB-1 (USSR) · FlybyPartial

Three launches, 24 October to 4 November 1962: two never left Earth orbit and were never announced. The third, Mars 1, lost its attitude control gas within days and fell silent on 21 March 1963 at 106 million km.

Mariner 3 · 1964

NASA · FlybyFailure

Killed by its own nose cone on 5 November 1964: the payload shroud never separated, the solar panels could not open, and the batteries died 8 hours 43 minutes after liftoff. Silent in solar orbit ever since.

Zond 2 · 1964

OKB-1 (USSR) · FlybyFailure

Crippled hours after launch on 30 November 1964 by a jammed solar panel, on about half power, it fired the first electric thrusters beyond Earth orbit, went silent by May 1965 and passed Mars unheard on 6 August 1965.

Zond 3 · 1964

OKB-1 (USSR) · FlybySuccess

Success: launched 18 July 1965 towards the orbit of Mars with no Mars at the end of it, it photographed the unseen third of the lunar far side and replayed those frames to 153.5 million km by March 1966.

Mariner 4 · 1965

NASA · FlybySuccess

Flew 9,846 km above Mars at 01:00:57 UTC on 15 July 1965 and returned the first close-up photographs of another planet. Communications were terminated 21 December 1967; the spacecraft is derelict in solar orbit.

The Soviet crewed Mars programme · 1960

USSR · ProgramCancelled

Cancelled, and never built. Design ran at OKB-1 from 1959, was halted by decree on 13 May 1961, continued anyway, was revived in 1969 as Aelita and died with the N1; the only hardware was a Moscow mock-up.

Voyager (Mars) · 1960

NASA · ProgramCancelled

Cancelled at the end of August 1967, when Congress zeroed its fiscal 1968 appropriation: seven years of study and no flight hardware. The orbiter-and-lander architecture went into Viking, which landed on Mars in 1976.

Mars Excursion Module · 1963

NASA · LanderCancelled

Never built, and never formally cancelled: no crewed Mars programme was ever approved for it to belong to. It was designed three times between 1963 and 1967, by Philco Aeronutronic, Marshall and North American Rockwell.

Mars 4NM and 5NM · 1968

USSR · ProgramCancelled

Never built: both flights died with the N1, which failed on all four of its test launches. Designed at Lavochkin from 1970, 4NM would have landed a rover and 5NM flown 200 g of Martian soil home.

Mariner 6 and 7 · 1969

NASA · FlybySuccess

Both flybys succeeded: Mariner 6 passed Mars on 31 July 1969 and Mariner 7 on 5 August 1969 UTC, returning 201 pictures between them. Both fell silent in the early 1970s and remain derelict in solar orbit.

Mars 1969A and 1969B · 1969

USSR · OrbiterFailure

Two identical Soviet Mars orbiters, both destroyed by their Proton rockets six days apart in spring 1969. Neither reached Earth orbit, and the USSR never acknowledged that they existed.

PrOP-M · 1970

USSR · RoverFailure

Both lost without ever moving: two 4.5 kg ski-walking robots rode to Mars in 1971. The first was destroyed when Mars 2 hit the ground on 27 November; Mars 3 landed on 2 December and fell silent within two minutes.

Kosmos 419 · 1971

USSR · OrbiterFailure

Reached Earth parking orbit on 10 May 1971, but its Blok D upper stage never restarted because the wrong ignition time had been loaded into the onboard computer. It reentered on 12 May 1971.

Mariner 8 · 1971

NASA · OrbiterFailure

Lost on 9 May 1971 when the Centaur upper stage lost pitch control about 4.7 minutes after liftoff. It fell into the Atlantic, and its mapping mission was folded into Mariner 9.

Mariner 9 · 1971

NASA · OrbiterSuccess

Success: the first spacecraft to orbit another planet, arriving 14 November 1971 UTC and commanded off on 27 October 1972 after 348 days and 7,329 pictures. Still in Mars orbit, no re-entry confirmed as of August 2026.

Mars 2 · 1971

USSR · LanderPartial

Crashed on 27 November 1971, the first human-made object to reach the surface of Mars; the orbiter it rode on flew 362 orbits before the mission was declared over on 22 August 1972. The wreck has never been located.

Mars 3 · 1971

USSR · LanderPartial

First confirmed soft landing on Mars, at about 13:50:35 UT on 2 December 1971. It began transmitting 90 seconds later and stopped almost immediately; how long it spoke and why it stopped are still unsettled in 2026.

Mars 4, 5, 6 and 7 · 1973

USSR · LanderPartial

None of the four 1973 probes completed its mission: Mars 4 flew past without braking, Mars 5 leaked air in orbit, Mars 7 missed the planet, and Mars 6 sent the first data from inside the atmosphere on 12 March 1974.

Mars 5M · 1973

USSR · Sample returnCancelled

Cancelled with flight vehicles already in manufacture. Russian sources close this Soviet sample return on 17 November 1977, the week its chief designer lost his job; Perminov, who worked on it, dates the end to 1978.

The Viking biology results · 1976

NASA · ProgramPartial

All three Viking life-detection experiments returned signals in 1976. As of August 2026 most of the field explains them by soil chemistry, one control still has no reproduced chemical explanation, and the case is open.

Viking 1 · 1976

NASA · LanderSuccess

Landed in western Chryse Planitia on 20 July 1976 and worked 2,245 sols against a 90-day design life. Killed on 19 November 1982 by a command from Earth that overwrote its antenna-pointing memory.

Viking 2 · 1976

NASA · LanderSuccess

Landed in Utopia Planitia on 3 September 1976, canted 8.2 degrees with one footpad on a rock, and worked 1,281 sols against a 90-day design life. Turned off on 11 April 1980 when its batteries stopped holding a charge.

Mars 94 and Mars 98 · 1985

USSR and Russia (IKI, NPO Lavochkin, VNIITransmash), with CNES and NASA · ProgramCancelled

Five efforts, one launch. Vesta never became hardware, Mars 94 lost its twin in 1991 and then its 1994 launch date, and Mars 98 was closed in the spring of 1995; the surviving airframe flew as Mars 96 in November 1996.

Mars Aerostat · 1986

CNES and IKI (France, USSR then Russia) · AircraftCancelled

Terminated in 1995 over money, with hardware built and tested on Earth. No balloon has ever been released at Mars; only its relay receiver flew, on Mars Observer in 1992 and Mars Global Surveyor in 1996.

The sample returns cancelled before this one · 1987

NASA / CNES · Sample returnCancelled

Two American sample returns died before hardware. Mars Rover/Sample Return went with the Space Exploration Initiative in 1990, and the NASA and CNES project promising samples in October 2008 fell after the 1999 losses.

Phobos 1 and 2 · 1988

USSR · OrbiterPartial

Both spacecraft died before the landings they were built for: Phobos 1 on 31 August 1988, killed by a single missing character in an uploaded command, and Phobos 2 on 27 March 1989, after 57 days in Mars orbit.

Space Exploration Initiative: the Mars element · 1989

White House and NASA (United States) · ProgramCancelled

Politically dead within eleven months of President George H. W. Bush announcing it on 20 July 1989: the House Appropriations Committee deleted every SEI budget line on 26 June 1990. No Mars hardware was ever built.

The Mars networks that were never built · 1991

NASA, ESA, CNES · ProgramCancelled

No network of small stations has ever landed on Mars. At least five were designed in detail between 1991 and 2004, MESUR, INTERMARSNET, NetLander, Pascal and MetNet, and every one was cancelled for money.

Mars Observer · 1993

NASA · OrbiterFailure

Lost on 22 August 1993 during a planned fourteen-minute radio blackout, 68 hours short of Mars orbit insertion. The failure board found no smoking gun, and whether the spacecraft reached orbit is still unknown.

Mars Surveyor Program · 1993

NASA · ProgramPartial

Two of the four spacecraft flown worked, Mars Global Surveyor and the orbiter renamed 2001 Mars Odyssey; Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander were both lost in 1999. NASA replaced the programme on 26 October 2000.

Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander · 1994

NASA · LanderCancelled

Built and never flown: NASA said on 28 March 2000 that it was cancelled and on hold indefinitely, a near copy of Mars Polar Lander, which had crashed on 3 December 1999. Its structure reached Mars in 2008 as Phoenix.

Mars 96 · 1996

Roscosmos · OrbiterFailure

Never left Earth orbit: the Blok D-2 missed its second burn and Mars 96 re-entered on 17 November 1996 over the eastern Pacific, Chile and Bolivia. Nothing was recovered, including about 270 g of plutonium-238.

Mars Global Surveyor · 1996

NASA · OrbiterEnded

Mapped Mars for nine years, more than four times its planned mission. Last contact 2 November 2006, after a memory write sent in June drove a solar array into its hard stop and left the antenna pointing away from Earth.

Mars Pathfinder and Sojourner · 1997

NASA · RoverSuccess

Success: bounced into Ares Vallis on airbags on 4 July 1997 and put the first wheels on Mars two days later. Last data came 27 September 1997; NASA stopped calling on 10 March 1998, and HiRISE found the lander in 2006.

Mars Micromissions and the Kitty Hawk airplane · 1998

NASA and CNES · ProgramCancelled

No micromission was ever built. NASA and CNES planned 220 kg spacecraft riding Ariane 5 for free to build a six-satellite Mars relay network, starting in 2003 with either a relay orbiter or an aeroplane.

Nozomi · 1998

ISAS/JAXA · OrbiterFailure

Japan's first mission to another planet, and it never reached Mars orbit: a valve in the oxidiser feed failed on 20 December 1998, insertion was abandoned on 9 December 2003, and Nozomi passed Mars at about 1,000 km.

Deep Space 2 · 1999

NASA · PenetratorFailure

Neither probe was ever heard from after 3 December 1999, and nothing confirms Amundsen and Scott separated, entered or reached the ground. The review board named no probable cause, only four plausible failure modes.

Mars Climate Orbiter · 1999

NASA · OrbiterFailure

Lost at orbit insertion on 23 September 1999: the carrier vanished 49 seconds early and never returned. One root cause, a ground file giving thruster impulse in pound-force seconds where newton-seconds were specified.

Mars Polar Lander · 1999

NASA · LanderFailure

Lost on 3 December 1999 with no descent telemetry, and never found. The review board's probable cause is a spurious touchdown signal at leg deployment that shut the engine off at about 40 m.

Life detection: the missions NASA did not fly · 1976

NASA · ProgramCancelled

One life-detection payload has flown to Mars, Viking's in 1976. The Astrobiology Field Laboratory and Icebreaker were studied and never started, and as of August 2026 the next Discovery call is not expected before 2028.

ARES, the Mars airplane · 1978

NASA · AircraftCancelled

Never built beyond subscale test articles. NASA Langley's rocket-powered aeroplane, designed for a single 70-minute flight over the Southern Highlands, lost Mars Scout to Phoenix in 2003 and was passed over in 2007.

The Phobos and Deimos missions that were never flown · 1997

NASA, ESA and national teams · ProgramCancelled

Between 1997 and 2018 at least ten serious proposals to visit Phobos or Deimos were made, and none was selected for flight. Aladdin came closest, twice a Discovery finalist; Japan's MMX, chosen outside that process, is scheduled to launch 20 October 2026.

The Mars hardware with no ride · 2000

Finnish Meteorological Institute, Lavochkin, INTA, Thoth Technology, NASA/JPL · ProgramCancelled

Built and tested from the mid-1990s to 2020, then never launched: as of 24 August 2026 none of this hardware has left Earth. Two flight-capable MetNet landers existed by September 2013 with no rocket bought for them.

The Mars Scout Program · 2000

NASA · ProgramEnded

Ended without a third competition: two missions were selected, Phoenix in 2003 and MAVEN in 2008, and NASA opened Discovery to Mars in 2010. Both have now finished, MAVEN declared unrecoverable on 3 June 2026.

2001 Mars Odyssey · 2001

NASA · OrbiterOperating

Operating as of 3 September 2026: in Mars orbit since 24 October 2001, longer than any other spacecraft, and still relaying rover data. The most recent published fuel estimate, about 4 kg, dates from March 2023.

Beagle 2 · 2003

ESA / UK · LanderFailure

Landed on Isidis Planitia on 25 December 2003, never sent a single bit, and was declared lost on 6 February 2004. HiRISE found it intact on 16 January 2015, panels only partly opened; still silent as of 23 August 2026.

Mars Express · 2003

ESA · OrbiterOperating

Operating as of 3 September 2026: Europe's first mission to another planet has orbited Mars since 25 December 2003. It carried the lost Beagle 2, and its MARSIS radar found the most argued-over reflection on Mars.

Mars Telecommunications Orbiter · 2003

NASA · OrbiterCancelled

Cancelled on 21 July 2005 before construction, and nothing replaced it. NASA sought proposals for a commercially built Mars Telecommunications Network on 14 May 2026, with no award announced as of 24 August 2026.

Opportunity (MER-B) · 2004

NASA · RoverEnded

Landed in Eagle crater on 25 January 2004 for a 90-sol mission and worked 5,111 sols, driving 45.16 km. A planet-encircling dust storm ended it: last signal 10 June 2018, mission complete 13 February 2019.

Spirit (MER-A) · 2004

NASA · RoverEnded

Landed in Gusev Crater on 4 January 2004 for a 90-sol mission and worked 2,210 sols. Its last downlink came on 22 March 2010; NASA closed the recovery on 25 May 2011, and nothing had answered by 23 August 2026.

The place names of Mars · 2004

IAU · ProgramOperating

Operating as of 24 August 2026: the IAU gazetteer holds 2,052 approved names on Mars and not one is a landing site. Bradbury Landing, Wright Brothers Field and the memorial stations are agency names only.

World Trade Center Aluminium on Mars · 2004

Honeybee Robotics, with NASA JPL · ArtefactSuccess

Still on Mars: aluminium from the World Trade Center site, machined into the rock abrasion tool cable shield on each of Spirit and Opportunity, rovers that fell silent in March 2010 and June 2018.

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter · 2006

NASA · OrbiterOperating

Operating as of 3 September 2026, in Mars orbit since 10 March 2006 and now in its twenty-first year, still relaying and still imaging. CRISM is dead; HiRISE and the Mars Climate Sounder are damaged but working.

Mars-500, SIRIUS and CHAPEA · 2007

Institute of Biomedical Problems, Moscow, with ESA, China and NASA · Analogue missionSuccess

Completed: six men sealed into chambers in Moscow for 520 days, 3 June 2010 to 4 November 2011. The line runs on through Russia's SIRIUS series to NASA's CHAPEA, whose second crew is due out on 31 October 2026.

MAX-C and the Mars Exploration Joint Initiative · 2008

NASA / ESA · RoverCancelled

Never built: NASA's caching rover concept of 2009, meant to launch in May 2018 beside Europe's ExoMars rover, was merged away in April 2011 on cost. The caching idea survived and became Perseverance.

MELOS · 2008

ISAS and JAXA (Japan) · ProgramCancelled

Closed without ever becoming a mission: a Japanese working group approved in June 2008 and terminated by a report submitted on 25 December 2014. Its final rover proposal lost the medium-class call of 16 February 2015.

Phoenix · 2008

NASA · LanderEnded

Landed 25 May 2008 at 68.22 N in the Martian arctic, touched and analysed water ice and measured 0.4 to 0.6 percent perchlorate in the soil. Last signal 2 November 2008; NASA formally ended the mission on 24 May 2010.

Visions of Mars · 2008

The Planetary Society, with IKI and NASA · ArtefactSuccess

On Mars since 25 May 2008 and still unread: a Planetary Society disc of about 80 Mars works, bolted to the Phoenix lander deck at 68.22 N, 234.25 E. The first copy was lost with Mars 96 in November 1996.

Phobos-Grunt and Yinghuo-1 · 2011

Roscosmos (Russia) and CNSA (China) · Sample returnFailure

Stranded in low Earth orbit after launch on 8 November 2011: neither Mars burn ever fired, and the stack re-entered over the Pacific on 15 January 2012 with China's Yinghuo-1 still attached.

Red Dragon · 2011

SpaceX with NASA Ames Research Center (United States) · LanderCancelled

Cancelled on 19 July 2017, when Musk dropped propulsive landing for Dragon: the capsule was to land on Mars on its own engines with no parachute, announced by SpaceX on 27 April 2016. None was ever built.

Curiosity (Mars Science Laboratory) · 2012

NASA · RoverOperating

Operating as of 3 September 2026: fourteen years and about 38.2 km into a mission whose prime phase was one Martian year, with a drive on sol 4998 logged that day in NASA's own traverse file.

Mars One · 2012

Mars One Foundation (Netherlands) and Mars One Ventures AG (Switzerland) · ProgramCancelled

Cancelled: a one-way Mars settlement announced in 2012 for a 2023 landing, funded by broadcast rights. Nothing was built, and a Basel court declared the for-profit arm, Mars One Ventures AG, bankrupt on 15 January 2019.

Inspiration Mars · 2013

Inspiration Mars Foundation (United States) · FlybyCancelled

Never flew: Dennis Tito's 2013 plan to loop two people past Mars on a 501-day free return from 5 January 2018. NASA declined his 700 million dollar request in November 2013 and the foundation's website went dark in late 2015.

Mars Orbiter Mission (Mangalyaan) · 2014

ISRO · OrbiterEnded

Lost after a long eclipse in April 2022; ISRO declared it non-recoverable on 27 September 2022. First Asian spacecraft to orbit Mars, it arrived in September 2014 and worked eight years against a six-month design life.

MAVEN · 2014

NASA · OrbiterEnded

Declared unrecoverable on 3 June 2026, after eleven years in Mars orbit against a one-year primary science mission. Its last signal came on 6 December 2025 and why it started spinning is still unexplained.

ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter · 2016

ESA and Roscosmos · OrbiterOperating

Operating as of 3 September 2026: JPL Horizons returns live Mars-centred vectors for it, and raw ACS, NOMAD and FREND products run in ESA's public archive to 29 May 2026, the newest it holds.

Schiaparelli EDM · 2016

ESA · LanderFailure

Destroyed on impact in Meridiani Planum on 19 October 2016 at 14:47:28 UTC, 37 seconds early, at about 150 m/s. ESA's inquiry board reported on 17 April 2017 and ESA announced the findings on 24 May 2017.

InSight · 2018

NASA · LanderEnded

Ended on 15 December 2022, four years after landing in Elysium Planitia, when dust cut its solar power by about ninety per cent. It left 1,319 marsquakes, the first seismic catalogue of a planet other than Earth.

MarCO A and B · 2018

NASA · FlybySuccess

In orbit around the Sun and silent since 4 January 2019. The two CubeSats relayed InSight's landing live from about 3,500 km out on 26 November 2018, then stopped answering within six weeks.

The HP3 Mole · 2018

DLR / NASA · PenetratorFailure

Failed: abandoned on 9 January 2021 at a tip depth of 37 cm against a 3 m minimum, so the heat flow measurement was never made. The mole is intact, wholly underground in Elysium Planitia and tilted about 30 degrees.

Mars gravity assists · 2004

ESA and NASA · FlybySuccess

Five spacecraft have bent their trajectories at Mars: Rosetta in 2007, Dawn in 2009, Europa Clipper and Hera in March 2025 and Psyche on 15 May 2026. Three of the five fell inside fourteen and a half months.

Mars as an observatory · 2013

NASA, ESA and CNSA · ProgramOperating

Twice the Mars fleet has been turned round to look outward: at comet Siding Spring on 19 October 2014 and at 3I/ATLAS in October 2025, whose predicted position the Mars astrometry then improved tenfold.

Kazachok · 2015

Roscosmos, with ESA · LanderCancelled

Built, tested, mated to the rover and never launched. ESA suspended the ExoMars cooperation with Roscosmos on 17 March 2022 and terminated it in July; Roscosmos said the platform was home in Russia on 30 October 2024.

International Mars Ice Mapper · 2020

NASA, CSA, JAXA and ASI, later joined by the Netherlands Space Office · OrbiterCancelled

NASA terminated its financial support on 28 March 2022 and the other partners did not follow: Italy signed a 22 million euro Phase B1 contract on 8 March 2024. As of 24 August 2026 no agency has said whether it lives.

The deleted Mars Sample Return vehicles · 2020

NASA / ESA · Sample returnCancelled

None reached a launch pad. From 2022 the campaign deleted its fetch rover, a second lander, two helicopters and the ascent vehicle, and ESA members asked to cancel the Earth Return Orbiter, reported on 28 March 2026.

Tianwen-1's deployable cameras · 2020

CNSA · ArtefactSuccess

Success: three throwaway cameras, one ejected on the cruise in 2020, one reported released in Mars orbit at the end of 2021, and the one Zhurong dropped on 1 June 2021 for the portrait, still lying in Utopia Planitia.

Hope (Emirates Mars Mission) · 2021

MBRSC and UAE Space Agency (United Arab Emirates) · OrbiterOperating

In Mars orbit since 9 February 2021 and still flying as of 23 August 2026: the UAE announced a three-year extension to 2028 on 17 February 2026, and JPL held tracking data for it through 28 May 2026.

Ingenuity · 2021

NASA · HelicopterEnded

Grounded at Valinor Hills since 18 January 2024, when all four rotor blades broke on landing. NASA declared the mission complete on 25 January 2024 and left it recording with no way to send anything home.

Messages to Mars · 2021

USSR, NASA, ESA and CNSA · ArtefactSuccess

The deliberate messages are still there, from a Soviet pennant that arrived as wreckage on 27 November 1971 to flags, memorial plaques, four sundials, a 1909 penny and a parachute encoding DARE MIGHTY THINGS. One plaque meant for Mars is still in a museum in Washington.

Perseverance (Mars 2020) · 2021

NASA · RoverOperating

Operating as of 3 September 2026: NASA's raw-image feed carried pictures from sol 1968 and the traverse file logged a drive at 45,105.717 m, about 54 m short of Opportunity's off-Earth distance record.

Send Your Name to Mars · 2021

NASA and The Planetary Society · ArtefactSuccess

Seven spacecraft have put about 22.9 million name entries on the Martian surface, from Pathfinder in 1997 to Perseverance's 10,932,295 in 2021. NASA's page, updated 27 July 2026, says reservations are closed.

The Mars Microphone · 2021

The Planetary Society / NASA / CNES · ArtefactOperating

Working since February 2021 on Perseverance, at the third attempt: NASA was still publishing new SuperCam audio in August 2026. The first was lost with Mars Polar Lander in 1999, the second never ran on Phoenix.

Tianwen-1 · 2021

CNSA (China) · OrbiterOperating

The orbiter is still working: CNSA said on 20 May 2026 that it is running stably. It reached Mars orbit on 10 February 2021 and landed Zhurong on 14 May 2021; the rover has been silent since May 2022.

Zhurong · 2021

CNSA (China) · RoverEnded

Silent since 18 May 2022, when it hibernated for the Martian winter after 358 sols and 1,921 m against a design life of 90. Dust is the likely cause, and as of 3 September 2026 China has declared no formal end.

The Three Forks sample depot · 2023

NASA · Sample depotOperating

Intact and uncollected: ten sealed titanium tubes Perseverance laid on the floor of Jezero Crater between 21 December 2022 and 28 January 2023. As of 3 September 2026 no mission is scheduled to retrieve them.

Hera at Deimos · 2024

ESA · FlybySuccess

Success: Hera photographed the far side of Deimos from about 1,000 km on 12 March 2025 during a Mars gravity assist. In August 2026 those frames pinned a Nature Astronomy reconstruction to a 320 m impactor.

The derelict fleet in Mars orbit · 2026

various · OrbiterDebris

Twenty-three objects were in orbit at Mars on 26 August 2026: six working spacecraft, ten dead ones and seven pieces of hardware. Nothing there is tracked, and JPL models only five of the wrecks.

What we left behind: parachutes, backshells and heat shields · 2026

various · Descent hardwareSuccess

Twelve landing sites carry entry hardware identified from orbit, almost all by HiRISE: heat shields, backshells, parachutes, descent stages and Curiosity's tungsten ballast. At the oldest the pieces are only likely.

Fobos-Grunt 2, Boomerang and Mars-Grunt · 2012

Roscosmos · ProgramCancelled

Paper only, and dormant with no announced end as of 27 August 2026: Boomerang reached technical proposals in 2019 and stopped there for want of money. No hardware was built and no cancellation was ever announced.

Mangalyaan-2 (Mars Lander Mission) · 2014

ISRO · LanderPlanned

Announced in October 2014 and still unfunded: the Space Commission approved it in February 2025, and the Union Cabinet, which releases the money, had not by 24 August 2026. No Mars window opens in 2030.

China's crewed Mars plans · 2016

CASC and CNSA (China) · ProgramPlanned

Stated but not funded. As of 24 August 2026 China has approved no crewed Mars mission; CNSA's roadmap, presented to the UN in January 2024, puts crewed Mars in the 2040 to 2050 band, behind a lunar landing around 2030.

Starship and Mars · 2016

SpaceX · ProgramIn development

SpaceX has never launched anything to Mars. As of 3 September 2026 Starship has flown thirteen tests without reaching orbit, and SpaceX's own website offers cargo to the Martian surface no earlier than 2028.

National Mars ambitions · 2017

MBRSC and the UAE Space Agency; KASA (South Korea); others · ProgramPlanned

Two national targets with no Mars hardware behind them: the UAE's Mars 2117 settlement programme of 14 February 2017 and South Korea's 2045 robotic landing goal, set 28 November 2022. Both stood on 24 August 2026.

Mars Science Helicopter and Chopper · 2020

NASA JPL, NASA Ames and AeroVironment · HelicopterIn development

Concept work with nothing approved to fly: as of 24 August 2026 neither the Mars Science Helicopter of March 2020 nor the SUV-sized Chopper of December 2024 has a mission, though the rotors have been tested past Mach 1.

Mars Life Explorer · 2021

NASA · LanderPlanned

Still a concept as of 24 August 2026, with no new start, funding line or launch date. The 2022 decadal survey made this ice-drilling lander NASA's top medium-class Mars mission, to follow sample return's peak spending.

SkyFall · 2021

NASA and AeroVironment · HelicopterIn development

Adopted by NASA on 24 March 2026, cut from AeroVironment's six-helicopter concept to three: released in mid-air with no lander involved. Launch is December 2028 aboard SR-1 Freedom, landing in autumn 2030.

The Impulse and Relativity Mars lander · 2022

Impulse Space and Relativity Space · LanderPlanned

Dormant rather than cancelled: announced on 19 July 2022 for a launch as soon as late 2024, moved to 2026 in May 2023, and unmentioned by either company since. No hardware, customer or payload has ever been shown.

Commercial Mars Payload Services and Mars Future Missions · 2023

NASA · ProgramIn development

Two budget lines with no mission selected: CMPS was created in NASA's fiscal 2026 request at $200 million, Mars Future Missions enacted at $110 million in January 2026. The low-cost solicitation is due October 2026.

Idefix (MMX Phobos rover) · 2023

CNES and DLR, flying with JAXA · RoverIn development

Not launched: bolted to JAXA's MMX at Tanegashima and tested through the northern spring, for a launch set for 20 October 2026. Release onto Phobos from 40 to 100 metres up follows in late 2028 or early 2029.

LightShip, SpotLight and MARCONI · 2023

ESA · ProgramIn development

Not approved: a Phase A/B1 design study running to mid-2027. ESA's exploration programme was undersubscribed at the November 2025 ministerial, and LightShip was not among the missions confirmed there.

Mars Telecommunications Network · 2025

NASA · OrbiterIn development

Funded but not awarded: Congress set aside $700 million on 4 July 2025 and NASA closed proposals on 15 June 2026. No selection had been announced by 24 August 2026, against a 1 October contract target.

Aeolus and the Relativity Mars orbiter · 2026

NASA and Relativity Space · OrbiterIn development

Announced on 17 June 2026 and still undisclosed in almost every detail: NASA supplies the four-instrument Aeolus payload, Relativity pays for and flies the orbiter. Launch is 2028 on Terran R, which has never flown.

ESCAPADE · 2026

NASA / UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory / Rocket Lab · OrbiterOperating

Operating as of 3 September 2026: both orbiters are being tracked about 2.4 million km from Earth, loitering since their 13 November 2025 launch. The burn for Mars is planned for November 2026, arrival September 2027.

Mars Sample Return (NASA and ESA) · 2026

NASA / ESA · ProgramCancelled

Cancelled: Congress declined to fund it in the appropriations bill signed on 23 January 2026, and ESA member states asked for the cancellation of the Earth Return Orbiter in March 2026. No replacement has been started.

Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) · 2026

JAXA · Sample returnIn development

Awaiting launch as of 3 September 2026: the spacecraft has been at Tanegashima since 31 March 2026, and JAXA has set liftoff for 20 October 2026 on H3 flight 10, with at least 10 g of Phobos due on Earth in fiscal 2031.

Sending people to Mars · 2026

various · ProgramPlanned

An aspiration with no programme behind it: as of 3 September 2026 we could find no funded human Mars programme, approved architecture or committed landing date anywhere. US space policy sets dates only for the Moon.

Space Reactor-1 Freedom · 2026

NASA · FlybyIn development

Announced on 24 March 2026 for a December 2028 launch: it would be the first spacecraft to propel itself beyond Earth orbit on a fission reactor. By August 2026 it had a requirements-level review and no rocket.

Rosalind Franklin rover · 2028

ESA, with NASA · RoverIn development

Funded and building hardware as of September 2026: NASA approved its supporting project on 16 April 2026 and selected a Falcon Heavy. ESA still says launch in 2028 and landing in 2030, with no exact dates published.

Tianwen-3 (天问三号) · 2028

CNSA · Sample returnIn development

In development, nothing flown yet: on 12 March 2026 chief designer Liu Jizhong said the spacecraft were in prototype build. CNSA still says launch around 2028 and samples on Earth around 2031.