NASA · lander ended
Viking 1
Viking 1 made the first fully successful landing on Mars in 1976 and sent back pictures and weather reports for six years.
- Launch
- 20 August 1975
- End of mission
- 13 November 1982
- Distance from Earth today
- 211.9 million km1.416 AU · light: 11 min 47 s
- Distance from the Sun today
- 238.8 million km1.596 AU
The spacecraft is at Mars.
Position
JPL Horizons has no trajectory for this mission – the map shows the body where the spacecraft is.
Mission timeline
- Launch on a Titan IIIE-Centaur
- Orbiter and lander enter orbit around Mars
- Lander touches down in Chryse Planitia
- Orbiter operations end
- Contact with the lander lost
Targets: Mars
About the mission
Viking 1 consisted of an orbiter and a lander that travelled to Mars together. After a month of scouting from orbit for a safe spot, the lander separated and touched down in Chryse Planitia on 20 July 1976, returning the first sharp images from the Martian surface within seconds of landing. Its biology experiments searched the soil for signs of microbial life, with results most scientists judged to be chemical rather than biological. The orbiter mapped the planet until 1980, and the lander, later named the Thomas Mutch Memorial Station, worked until November 1982.
Landing sites
Texture: Solar System Scope (CC BY 4.0) · names: IAU/USGS Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature
| Body | Site | Date | Coordinates |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mars | Thomas Mutch Memorial Station, Chryse Planitia | 20 July 1976 | 22.270° N, 47.950° W |