A review board could not determine whether the Mars 96 crash was 
due to failure of the Proton rocket Block D-2 upper stage or a 
malfunction of the Mars 96 spacecraft itself.  The failure 
investigation board concluded that lack of telemetry data during 
critical parts of the mission prevented identification of the 
cause of the failure.  The failure occurred at the second ignition 
of the Proton Block D-2 upper stage, while the spacecraft was out 
of range of Russian ground stations.  The Mars 96 spacecraft 
carried 200 grams of plutonium in the form of small pellets.  They 
were designed to withstand heat and impact and are thought to have 
survived re-entry.  The Block D-2 stage carried no plutonium.  The 
spacecraft is believed to have crashed somewhere in a 320 km long 
by 80 wide oval running southwest to northeast and centered 32 km 
east of Iquique in Chile.  No parts of the spacecraft or upper 
stage have been recovered. 


MARS 96 TIME LINE

Approximate times of events during Mars 96 mission from 
launch to splashdown. Times and event occurences have 
been estimated using data from the Mars 96 home page 
and news reports.  All times are UTC.

16 November 1996
20:48:53    Launch of Mars 96 on Proton from Baikonur
21:57:46    Scheduled Block-D2 (4th stage) 2nd ignition (failed)
22:06:51    Scheduled Block-D2 / Mars 96 separation (successful)
~22:20      End of first orbit
~23:50      End of second orbit

17 November 1996
~00:45 - 01:30   Crash of Mars 96 spacecraft in the Pacific Ocean,  
                 Chile or Bolivia.
		 
		 Russian sources have approximated an impact time 
		 of 01:00 to 01:30.  The U.S Space Surveillance 
		 Network tracked an object entering Earth's 
		 atmosphere at 00:49 and eyewitnesses reported  
		 a meteorite breaking up over the Atacama desert 
		 near the Chile/Bolivia border at 00:50.

18 November 1996
~01:13      Block D2 atmospheric entry (approx. 42.2 S, 161.3 E)
~01:20      Block D2 splashdown off coast of Chile (approx. 50.9 S, 168.1 W)