Thirty years ago — July 20, 1976 — NASA’s Viking 1 became the first spacecraft to land on Mars and send back detailed pictures of the surface. The Vikings paved the way for NASA’s Mars exploration program, which includes five spacecraft currently at Mars.
A new podcast available at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/features people who were in the control room on landing day, and the chief scientist of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who sums up 30 years of Mars exploration and discoveries.
Additional multimedia products are at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/spotlights/, including a video capturing the landing day drama, as the team saw the first pictures of the Martian surface, and a Flash slide show featuring Viking highlights.
More information on Viking is at www.nasa.gov/viking. More on NASA’s Mars exploration is at www.nasa.gov/mars .
