Mariner 1 is the first US spacecraft to study Venus from up close. It was launched from Cape Canaveral on July 22, 1962, but the mission ended during launch. An Atlas guidance system malfunction plus an error in the guidance software caused the vehicle to veer off its Roll control and Pitch control. The Range Safety Officer sent a destruct command at 294.5 seconds after liftoff. After this, the error was fixed, and NASA launched the spacecraft again on August 27, 1962.
