Viking 1

Mission

Kind: Orbiter and lander

State: Successful

Place: Mars

Operator: NASA

Date

Start:

Duration: Orbiter: 1846 days (1797 sols) Lander: 2306 days (2245 sols)Launch to last contact: 2642 days

Mission Ending

Last Contact: November 11, 1982 (1982-11-11)

Rocket

Rocket: Titan IIIE/Centaur

Kind: NASA

Manufacturer: Orbiter: NASA JPLLander: Martin Marietta

Mass: The fully fueled orbiter-lander pair had a mass of 3530 kg

Launch Site: LC-41, Cape Canaveral

Flyby

"Requesting permission for flyby." Maverick - Top Gun

Orbit

Reference System: Areocentric

1º Orbit: Mars

Lander

Place: Mars

Region: 22°16′N 312°03′E / 22.27°N 312.05°E / 22.27, 312.05 (Viking 1 lander)

Date: July 20, 1976 11:53:06 (UTC 36455 00:34 AMT)

Component: Viking 1 Lander

Viking 1 was the first of two spacecraft (along with Viking 2) sent to Mars as part of NASA's Viking program. On July 20, 1976, it became the second spacecraft to soft-land on Mars, and the first to successfully perform its mission. (The first spacecraft to soft-land on Mars was the Soviet Union's Mars 3 on December 2, 1971, which stopped transmitting after 14.5 seconds.) Viking 1 held the record for the longest Mars surface mission of 2307 days (over 61⁄4 years) or 2245 Martian solar days, until that record was broken by the Opportunity rover on May 19, 2010.