Two launches from Baikonur on the same date, one year apart. One aimed a spacecraft at Mars for the first time. The other showed a satellite could change its own orbit.
Toward a Silent Flyby
Stardate 81.8894 (NOVEMBER 1, 1962)
On 1 November 1962 a Molniya rocket left Baikonur and set Mars 1 on a path no spacecraft had successfully taken. NASA's records describe it as the first craft sent by any nation to fly past Mars, aimed to pass about 11,000 kilometres from the planet with cameras and instruments for a world still unseen at close range.
The journey was shorter than planned. A leak in the orientation system forced the probe onto a spin that kept its solar panels in sunlight, and the last signal was received on 21 March 1963. Mars 1 still passed the planet on 19 June, silent, at roughly 193,000 kilometres. The launch itself had already opened the road.
The Orbit That Could Bend
Stardate 134.4056 (NOVEMBER 1, 1963)
Polyot 1 rose from Baikonur at 08:56 UTC on 1 November 1963, the first satellite built to change its orbit in a substantial way. Earlier craft could hold an attitude. This one was meant to alter altitude and inclination, and the flight was announced as a test of wide maneuvering in near-Earth space.
The test worked. From an initial path a few hundred kilometres high, the satellite climbed to an apogee above 1,400 kilometres and shifted the tilt of its orbit. The name means flight. For the first time, flight in orbit included a real change of course.
In short
One launch opened the road to Mars, even if the probe went quiet before it arrived. The other proved a satellite could do more than hold its path. It could change course.