Editing Mars 2MV-4 No.1 (section)

== Launch ==
With the Cuban Missile Crisis unfolding, the USSR spacecraft ''Mars 2MV-4 No.1'' was launched at 17:55:04 UTC on 24 October 1962, atop a Molniya 8K78 carrier rocket flying from [[Gagarin's Start|Site 1/5]] at the Baikonur Cosmodrome.<ref name="LL">{{cite web|url=http://planet4589.org/space/log/launchlog.txt|title=Launch Log|last=McDowell|first=Jonathan|publisher=Jonathan's Space Page|access-date=29 July 2010}}</ref> The lower stages of the rocket performed nominally, placing the payload and the [[Blok L]] upper stage into low Earth orbit. When the Blok L ignited following a [[coast phase]], lubricant leaked out of the [[turbopump]], which consequently seized up and disintegrated. This caused the main engine to explode,<ref name="EA-R7">{{cite web|url=http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/soyuz.htm |title=Soyuz |last=Wade |first=Mark |publisher=Encyclopedia Astronautica |access-date=29 July 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100107163113/http://astronautix.com/lvs/soyuz.htm |archive-date=7 January 2010 }}</ref> destroying the upper stage and spacecraft.<ref name="GSP"/> Twenty two pieces of debris from the spacecraft and upper stage were catalogued, which decayed between 29 October 1962 and 26 February 1963.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://planet4589.org/space/log/satcat.txt |title=Satellite Catalog |last=McDowell |first=Jonathan |publisher=Jonathan's Space Page |access-date=29 July 2010}}</ref>