Viking: 50 Years on Mars

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Viking: 50 Years on Mars

The first successful lander on Mars, NASA’s three-legged Viking 1, touched down safely on July 20, 1976, at 7:53 a.m. EDT. It gave humanity our first ground-level view of the Red Planet. Joined six weeks later by its twin lander, Viking 2, and the two orbiters that accompanied them, the Viking mission broke ground on Mars surface exploration 50 years ago, a search that missions have been building on ever since, and are carrying into the future.

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Astrobiology

Viking and the search for life

Viking Images

First from the ground, first panorama, first color image, first sunset, and more

Viking Orbiters

The lofty partners of the two landers, they also collected stunning science and imagery

Spearhead of ’76

1976: The year of America’s Bicentennial, and Viking joined the celebration

This is the first panoramic view ever returned from the surface of Mars. This view from Camera 2 on Viking 1 shows Chryse Planitia on 20 July 1976, shortly after Viking landed.

NASA

Only 10 years before the Viking mission launched, Mars was still just a mottled orange ball when viewed through even the best Earthbound telescopes, with few discernable features.

Three NASA missions flew past in the 1960s, snagging grainy snapshots of a sliver of Mars as they hurtled by. In 1971, the Mariner 9 spacecraft arrived, and stayed, the first to orbit any other planet besides Earth. It photographed 85% of the Martian surface, revealing enormous volcanoes and canyons never seen before, and evidence that water once flowed across what had been thought to be a barren moonscape.

By then, NASA had already achieved the goal of landing, not one, but a dozen men on the Moon and returning them safely to Earth. But Mars remained an enigma, not even a robotic lander had gotten there to show us the view from the ground.

It was finally time to dig into the red rocks and see what was there, or had been there millions of years earlier when Mars was warmer and wetter.

On July 20, 1976, the seventh anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing, the Viking 1 lander touched down safely on the Red Planet, at 7:53 a.m. EDT. The radio signal confirming success took 19 more minutes to travel the 212 million miles to Earth, where the mission team gathered at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. After celebrating the accomplishment, then marveling at the first two images the lander immediately relayed home, the team got to work.

Today NASA's Curiosity and Perseverance rovers are gathering more evidence, searching more territory, continuing the exploration that Viking began 50 years ago, a pursuit that coming missions will carry into the future and across the face of Mars.

A twin lander, Viking 2, arrived six weeks later, touching down on the other side of the planet Sept. 3, 1976. The Vikings were actually two pairs of spacecraft, the landers teamed with orbiters that ferried the surface craft to Mars, then remained aloft, circling the planet. The orbiters collected their own data, relayed those and the findings of the landers to Earth, and captured images from above Mars far superior to anything Mariner 9 managed only five years earlier, more than 52,000 images in all. The landers collected another 4,500+, extending humankind’s vision to Mars for the first time.

The Viking project certified the equipment and methods used to get a spacecraft safely on the Martian surface, a playbook missions followed successfully for decades thereafter. And for the first time humans packed and shipped a self-contained science lab to another world. It took the first measurements in an ongoing search for life beyond Earth, a journey that step-by-step took us through findings by successive missions. Those built upon each other, leading to recent discoveries by NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover of organic compounds that can’t be fully explained by “non-biologic processes,” and by the agency’s Perseverance rover of “potential biosignatures”, clues suggesting the presence of ancient microbial life, which then-NASA Administrator Sean Duffy called “the closest we have ever come to discovering life on Mars.”

Even today those rovers are gathering more evidence, searching more territory, continuing the exploration that Viking began 50 years ago, a pursuit that coming missions will carry into the future and across the face of Mars.

First Image From the Surface of Mars

Viking 1 was programmed to take an image right away, 25 seconds after touchdown. More than just a message home, confirming it had arrived safely, this view looking down at its footpad relayed the nature of the landing site. The surface was solid, safe, slightly rocky, with some dust and pebbles kicked up by the landing even settling on the spacecraft’s footpad.

See More Images, and Learn the Story about First Image From the Surface of Mars

How Far We’ve Come

Viking, 1976

Perseverance, 2024

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NASA/JPL

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NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Viking, 1976Perseverance, 2024

PIA00563

NASA/JPL

PIA26344

NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Viking, 1976

Perseverance, 2024

Then and now

From Viking to Perseverance

Two views from the surface of Mars, July 21, 1976, and July 23, 2024, separated by 4,200 miles (7,200 kilometers) and 48 years.

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Image Details

The image at left is the first color picture from the surface of Mars, taken July 21, 1976, the day following Viking l’s successful landing on the planet. The local time on Mars is approximately noon, and the view is southeast from Viking. Orange-red surface materials cover most of the terrain, apparently forming a thin veneer over darker bedrock exposed in patches, as in the lower right. The image at right, 48 years and 2 days later, and about 4,200 miles away (7,200 kilometers), is a selfie by NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover on July 23, 2024, made up of 62 individual images. A rock nicknamed “Cheyava Falls” is to the left of the rover near the center of the image, with a drill hole visible in its center. The sample cored from that rock, after a year of intensive study, was confirmed to have “potential biosignatures”, clues that point to the possibility of ancient microbial life on Mars

Map of NASA's Mars landing sites, 1976-2021

Viking, 1976

This is the first panoramic image of Chryse Planitia taken by camera 1 on the Viking 1 Lander. The image was taken on 23 July 1976, three days after Viking 1 landed.

NASA

Perseverance, 2026

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover captured this 360-degree panorama of a region nicknamed “Crocodile Bridge” on the rim of Jezero Crater. This region holds some of the oldest rocks anywhere in the solar system.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

‘There’s no way to describe it. We were lifted up!’

This NASA documentary, “Viking: Mars Trailblazer,” features vintage mission footage and remembrances from team members.

‘Viking: Mars Trailblazer’, Transcript and Downloads

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The Spearhead of ’76

The Viking 1 landing, the first of what would be many by American spacecraft on the Red Planet, was supposed to coincide with the U.S. Bicentennial, July 4, 1976, celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. But a rocky landing zone delayed its arrival, and America’s first impression on Mars had to wait two more weeks. Viking still took part in the festivities, though, remotely cutting the ribbon to open the brand-new Smithsonian Air and Space Museum on July 3.

Image: The flag of the United States on the Viking Lander 1 on Mars, July 26, 1976. The flag is on the RTG (Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator) wind screen, and below it are the U.S. Bicentennial logo and the mission logo, showing an ancient Viking ship. Credits: NASA/JPL

Learn More About Viking and America’s 200th Birthday

The Spearhead of ’76

Featured Video

‘First U.S. Mars Landing’

Vintage NASA documentary from June 1976 previewing the Viking mission to Mars, with footage of the Viking 1 and 2 launches, and interviews with Viking team members Richard Young and Gerald Soffen.

Watch the Video

Astrobiology, Viking and the Search for Life

Besides taking digital images and collecting other science data on the Martian surface, the two landers conducted three biology experiments designed to look for possible signs of life. These experiments discovered unexpected and enigmatic chemical activity in the Martian soil, but provided no clear evidence for the presence of living microorganisms in soil near the landing sites.

In order to test instruments for the Viking Program, early astrobiologists and exobiologists at NASA traveled to some of Earth’s most remote environments, including the Dry Valleys of Antarctica and the Atacama desert in Chile. These places are thought to be some of the best analogs for Mars that we have on Earth, and studying life in such locations has become an important element of astrobiology research at NASA.

The Viking results also taught scientists a great deal about how little we knew about life on Earth and how to detect it. To this day, the results are helping to shape the development of life detection strategies and equipment at NASA and other international agencies.

Learn more about NASA's Astrobiology Program and its search for life on Mars, elsewhere in the solar system, and beyond

Early astrobiology

Looking for Life on Another World, Starting With the Moon

This rediscovered footage from 1969 shows researchers at NASA’s Ames Research Center looking for signs of life in samples of Moon rocks and soil that astronauts brought back from the Apollo 11 mission. No lunar life was found, but these tests became the first time that NASA retrieved samples from another world to look for life on that world.

Learn More: ‘NASA Searches for Life from the Moon in Recently Rediscovered Historic Footage’

Learn More

Viking Project Website

Scientists in the 1960s knew relatively little about Mars, and images from the best Earth-based telescopes revealed little surface detail.

NASA Viking Fact Sheet

Full details about Viking 1 and 2, landers and orbiters, the overall mission, what it did, when, and where, all in one place.

Beyond Earth: A Chronicle of Deep Space Exploration

Learn more about Viking 1 and Viking 2 in this definitive history of deep space missions, published by the NASA History Division.

‘The Changing Face of Mars’

From the Mariner missions through the Viking orbiters and landers in 1976, this documentary looks at NASA’s initial forays to the Red Planet, using archival footage and interviews with key scientists and engineers.

Viking Image Collection

A selection of the mission’s Mars images, original and enhanced, from orbit and from ground level.

Viking Encounter Press Kit

An in-depth document from June 1976 detailing the mission goals, instruments, experiments, hardware, timeline, communications, personnel, and more.

Deep Space Network

Viking landers and orbiters were able to send their images and data to Earth from Mars because of NASA’s network of enormous dish antennas, the Deep Space Network. Vital transmissions that grew ever fainter as they crossed tens of millions of miles of space were gathered in by the 85-foot antennas in South Africa, Australia, and Goldstone, California.

The Source of Viking Power

The Viking landers functioned thanks to onboard nuclear electric power sources, pairs of radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs), which provided electricity and heat beyond what other sources could offer. They’re the same types of generator used by the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers today.

Explore Mars Virtually, NASA’s Eyes on the Solar System

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With NASA’S interactive tool, Eyes on the Solar System, you can explore Mars virtually. In the current view, visit the Red Planet the moment the Viking 1 lander arrived, and see how far you are from Earth. Or select the live view, to track NASA’s Mars missions right now, using real-time data. You can also fast-forward or rewind time, and explore the solar system as it looked from 1950 to 2050. Relive the Mars 2020 mission’s entry, descent, and landing, or ride along with other missions to the Red Planet, from launch to landing.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Get Involved

Viking Mission Resources

Find a variety of images, videos, posters, and activities about the Viking mission.

Mars Resources

A curated collection of Martian resources, including activities to do at home, videos, animations, printable graphics, and online interactives. This package is suitable for educators, students, and anyone interested in learning more about Mars!

Cloudspotting on Mars

In this Citizen Science project, help scientists find distinct cloud shapes in the Martian atmosphere.

NASA Space Place, Mars

NASA kids content, including fun games, hands-on activities, videos, and articles to learn about Mars and how NASA explores there.

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