On Aug. 20, 1975, NASA launched Viking 1, an unmanned probe that made the first-ever successful landing on Mars. After circling the planet for a month shooting photos of its surface to find a landing site, Viking 1’s orbiter shot out a lander that touched down in July 1976.
Technically, the Soviet Union made a landing on the red planet with their Mars 3 lander in 1971—but it was hardly successful, as they lost contact with it within seconds of touchdown.
Weeks after the rocketing the probe into space, NASA launched Viking 2. Together, the two orbiters imaged the whole surface of Mars, while the landers sent back over a thousand close-up photos of the red, dusty planet. Read more here and here.
NCPA
