Space fans all over the world breathed a sigh of relief yesterday when NASA’s Perseverance rover reached the surface of Mars safely. Humanity’s recent spate of bad luck aside, Mars is famous for ending missions before they even begin, with its inhospitable climate and the whole being-140-million-miles-away thing. Though Mars is certainly a challenge, it’s often our own mistakes that cause missions to crash, miss their targets, or otherwise fail in their intended goals.
Here, we’ve detailed five unfortunate (and some downright embarrassing) tales from humanity’s efforts to explore the Red Planet.
