Mariner IV Mars Pre-encounter

There was considerable excitement about the coming Mars encounter.

Three weeks before Mariner reached Mars, a Press Conference was held at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, outlining the sequence if events.

It includes discussion of the roles of the various Deep Space Network stations and is a fascinating summary of what was expected –

Les Whaley preserved this transcript of the Pre-Encounter Press Conference on 22 June 1965. Click the image for a 5.1MB PDF file.