Viking 40th Anniversary

Viking 40th Anniversary



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July 20, 1976, 7 years to the day after the Apol­lo 11 moon land­ing, the first suc­cess­ful land­ing on Mars by NASA’s Viking space­craft took place. The ambi­tious Viking mis­sions con­tin­ue to evoke pride and enthu­si­asm for future space exploration.

NASA’s Viking 1 and 2 mis­sions to Mars, each con­sist­ing of an orbiter and a lan­der, became the first space probes to obtain high res­o­lu­tion images of the Mar­t­ian sur­face; char­ac­ter­ize the struc­ture and com­po­si­tion of the atmos­phere and sur­face; and con­duct on-the-spot bio­log­i­cal tests for life on anoth­er planet.

Viking pro­vid­ed the first mea­sure­ments of the atmos­phere and sur­face of Mars. These mea­sure­ments are still being ana­lyzed and inter­pret­ed. The data sug­gest­ed ear­ly Mars was very dif­fer­ent from the present day plan­et. Viking per­formed the first suc­cess­ful entry, descent and land­ing on Mars. Deriva­tions of a Viking-style ther­mal pro­tec­tion sys­tem and para­chute have been used on many U.S. Mars lan­der mis­sions since. 

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