Historic Landing in July 1976
At 5:12 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time on July 20, 1976, engineers at the California-based propulsion laboratory of the U.S. space agency received confirmation that the Viking 1 spacecraft had made it through the thin Martian atmosphere and reached the ground intact. Cheers broke out among the mission team in the control room once the landing signal was verified.
Roughly forty minutes after the vehicle settled on the Martian soil, the first photographic frame started to render on the monitors at the ground station. The image assembled line by line, giving those present a gradual and unprecedented look at the alien terrain.
Significance of the Mission
By placing a working station on Mars that could send back direct surface imagery, Viking 1 achieved a first for planetary exploration. The returned pictures and associated data provided a foundation for subsequent investigations of the red planet and shaped the course of later landing attempts.
- Viking 1 touched down on Mars on July 20, 1976
- The Jet Propulsion Laboratory managed the mission
- The first image arrived about 40 minutes after landing