NASA launched Mars Global Surveyor aboard a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral on November 7, 1996, sending a spacecraft that would spend nearly ten years orbiting Mars and returning more data than every previous Mars mission combined. Its laser altimeter and high-resolution camera produced the first detailed topographic maps of the Martian surface, fundamentally reshaping scientific understanding of the planet's geology and climate history.
Mars Global Surveyor arrived at a moment when NASA badly needed a win at the Red Planet. Its predecessor, Mars Observer, had gone silent just before orbital insertion in 1993, a costly and embarrassing failure. Surveyor was built partly from spare Observer components but flew far cheaper and leaner, part of NASA's new 'faster, better, cheaper' philosophy for planetary exploration.
After launching on November 7, 1996, and reaching Mars orbit in September 1997, the spacecraft spent months using a technique called aerobraking—dipping repeatedly into the thin Martian atmosphere to shed speed and shape its orbit, saving enormous amounts of fuel. Once settled into a stable mapping orbit, its instruments produced a global topographic map so precise that scientists could trace ancient river valleys, polar ice layering, and evidence of relatively recent gully formation that hinted at liquid water. The mission operated for nearly a decade, far outliving its planned two-year lifespan, until contact was lost in November 2006—almost exactly ten years after launch.