Voyager program (Mars)

The Voyager program was a planned series of unmanned NASA probes to Mars. The missions were planned between 1966 and 1968 and scheduled for launch in 1974–75, but the funding for the program was cut in 1968 and the mission cancelled in 1971. The probes were to have been launched by Saturn V rockets (two probes on each launcher) and were conceived as precursors for a manned Mars landing. Much of the planning and development effort of the Voyager program formed the basis of the cheaper and simpler, yet still very ambitious, Viking program.

The same name was later used by the Voyager 1 and 2 outer planet probes; see Voyager program.