Viking 1 landed on Mars 50 years ago - The Register
NASA's Viking 1 mission, which landed on Mars 50 years ago, remains a landmark achievement in robotic space exploration. Despite technical glitches and debates over biological data, the mission provided the first detailed surface images and soil analysis of the Red Planet.
Why it matters
It represents a foundational milestone in planetary science and the history of human efforts to search for extraterrestrial life.
And would have lasted longer if some code hadn't trampled on places it shouldn't
It has been half a century since NASA landed on Mars with the Viking 1 lander.
Viking 1 , one of a pair of Viking spacecraft, landed on Mars on July 20, 1976. Launched on August 20, 1975, Viking 1 arrived in orbit around Mars on June 19, 1976. The Viking program is, when adjusted for inflation, one of the most expensive robotic missions ever attempted by NASA.
The spacecraft consisted of an orbiter, which was eventually shut down on August 7 as its attitude control gas was depleted, and a lander, which became the longest-lived component of the Viking program (and even then, it was only human error that did it in).
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