Mars 3, an unmanned Soviet probe launched May 28, 1971, made the first soft landing on the Red Planet. It was identical to the Mars 2 probe, which crashed onto the martian surface.
The decent module separated from the orbiter on December 2 and achieved a soft landing by aerodynamic braking, parachutes and retrorockets. It began transmitting 90 seconds after landing, but, 20 seconds later, stopped for an unknown reason.
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