Sixty-one years ago today, on November 28, 1964 (October 25, 1964), the Mariner IV spacecraft sent back the first photos of Mars. The series of unmanned space exploration spacecraft launched by the United States near Venus, Mars and Mercury was called "Mariner". On November 28, 1964, Mariner 4 sent back the first photos of the Martian surface. Then Mariner 6 and 7 (1969) and 9 (1971-1972) made important analyses of the Martian atmosphere in addition to taking photos. Mariner 10 (1973-1975) made three flybys of Mercury. The third flyby, within 130 miles of Mercury, sent the first close-up pictures of Mercury's surface back to Earth by radio and analyzed its magnetic field and atmosphere. Mars as seen from the Hubble Telescope