How Viking 1 Won the Martian Space Race

derekmead writes: NASA launched the Viking 1 spacecraft to Mars forty years ago. The probe was the first to achieve a soft landing on the planet, providing the first images and data from Mars. Politically the Viking 1 success was a huge win for the U.S. against the competing Soviet space program. Motherboard reports: "Viking 1 went on to become one of the most productive landers ever deployed on Mars, operating for 2,307 days before it finally shut down on November 13, 1982. It held the record for the longest Martian surface mission for decades, until the Opportunity rover finally beat it out in 2010 (and that little trooper is still going, by the way)."

Comments

First to achieve soft landing? really?

[OzPeter]

I suppose then that the USSR's Mars 3 explorer in 1971 must be a figment of my imagination.

With a summary that bad I can't even be bothered to red TFS.

And when you look at List of Solar System probes there is a good deal of red in a whole lotta space probes.