NASA planned a series of three planetary observers: one going to the moon, one to Mercury, and the first one to launch to Mars. Many hopes were laid on Mars mission, the first in seventeen years, to illuminate the secrets of the planet’s geology and history, to give a better understanding of the past or presence presence of water, and provide scans of the planet’s surface at maginification 100 times the level of the Viking cameras. Many of those were also dashed when the spacecraft failed to make its run.

On this day, August 21, in 1993, just three days before it was scheduled to go into orbit, contact was lost with the Mars Observer. It had time only to send three pictures of the planet.

Subsequent investigations concluded the most likely cause was a fuel line rupture that caused an explosion, and the remains of the craft went into a permanent orbit around Mars. NASA’s website lists the fuel line hypothesis as the cause, but have suspiciously not spoken out about the possibility of sabotage by Martians.