 After Mariner 1 ended its mission in the Atlantic Ocean instead of interplanetary space, the agency started coming under increased scrutiny from Congress due to its apparent inability to have any kind of success with planetary probes.Republican Congressman James Fulton confronted NASA Director of the Office of Programs J.J. Wyatt, noting that Mariner 1 had cost U.S. taxpayers $14 million and that there was no excuse at this point for failures every launch.As July 1962 ended, there had been 12 planetary probe attempts going back to 1958 and only two (Pioneer 4 and Pioneer 5) accomplished all of their mission goals.