First man-made object to reach the surface of Mars

On March 19, 1971: The Mars 2 was an uncrewed space probe of the Mars program, a series of uncrewed Mars landers and orbiters launched by the Soviet Union beginning 19 May 1971.

The Mars 2 and Mars 3 missions consisted of identical spacecraft, each with an orbiter and an attached lander.

The orbiter is identical to the Venera 9 bus. The type of bus/orbiter is the 4MV.

They were launched by a Proton-K heavy launch vehicle with a Blok D upper stage. The lander of Mars 2 became the first human-made object to reach the surface of Mars, although the landing system failed and the lander was lost.