VIKING: THE FIRST PHOTOS FROM THE SURFACE OF MARS
On July 20, 1976 — seven years to the day after Apollo 11 — a spacecraft named Viking 1 sent back the first photograph ever taken from the surface of Mars.
SEVEN YEARS TO THE DAY
NASA aimed Viking 1's landing for the Apollo 11 anniversary, and the lander delivered: within minutes of touchdown, its first image — its own footpad on rust-colored soil — was building line by line on screens at JPL.
Humanity had a postcard from another planet.
TWO ORBITERS, TWO LANDERS
Viking was a four-spacecraft armada: two orbiters mapping the planet from above while two landers studied the surface.
Viking 2 followed in September 1976, and the orbiters produced the global maps of Mars that scientists would rely on for decades.
THE SEARCH FOR LIFE
The landers carried biology experiments designed to detect metabolism in the Martian soil — the first direct search for life on another world.
The results were tantalizing, confusing, and ultimately judged negative, a scientific argument that hasn't fully ended to this day.
THE MARS WE GREW UP WITH
Butterscotch sky, scattered rocks, pink-red horizon — Viking's images defined what 'Mars' looks like in the human imagination for a generation.
Every rover since has been driving through Viking's photograph.
BEFORE ANYONE COULD DREAM OF WALKING ON MARS, VIKING SHOWED US WHAT WE'D BE WALKING ON.
