The Mariner 4 spacecraft was launched by he Americans on November 28 with the mission of photographing and studying the atmosphere of Mars. It reached Mars in July 1965 and was the first successful mission to reach the red planet as well as the first to provide images of another planet from deep space. There were a total of 21 black and white photos relayed back to Earth. The spacecraft stopped communicating with NASA in October 1965 when its antenna was no longer pointing in the correct position. The space probe resumed communications in 1967 but was deactivated at the end of that year.
