Published Jul 20, 2026, 11:38 AM ET · Updated 4 months ago · 1 source
Our First View of the Surface of Mars
NASA News
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Original Report
“Touchdown, we have touchdown!” At 5:12 a.m. PDT, July 20, 1976, mission controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory erupted in cheers as they learned that the Viking 1 lander had survived its descent through the thin Martian atmosphere. Forty minutes later, the lander’s first image began to appear on their monitors, slowly forming line by […]