Viking 1

The Viking 1 was the first of two spacecraft sent to Mars as part of NASA's Viking program. For a description of the spacecraft, see the Viking program article.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Following launch on 20 August 1975 and a 10 month cruise to Mars, the orbiter began returning global images of Mars about 5 days before orbit insertion. The Viking 1 Orbiter was inserted into Mars orbit on 19 June 1976 and trimmed to a 1513 x 33,000 km, 24.66 h site certification orbit on 21 June. Landing on Mars was planned for July 4, 1976, the United States Bicentennial, but imaging of the primary landing site showed it was too rough for a safe landing. The landing was delayed until a safer site was found. The lander separated from the orbiter on 20 July 08:51 UT and landed at Chryse Planitia at 11:56:06 UT. The orbiter primary mission ended at the beginning of solar conjunction on 5 November, 1976. The extended mission commenced on 14 December, 1976 after solar conjunction. Operations included close approaches to Phobos in February 1977. The periapsis was reduced to 300 km on 11 March, 1977. Minor orbit adjustments were done occasionally over the course of the mission, primarily to change the walk rate — the rate at which the planetocentric longitude changed with each orbit, and the periapsis was raised to 357 km on 20 July, 1979. On 7 August, 1980 Viking 1 Orbiter was running low on attitude control gas and its orbit was raised from 357 x 33943 km to 320 x 56000 km to prevent impact with Mars and possible contamination until the year 2019. Operations were terminated on August 17, 1980 after 1485 orbits.

Mars: Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in our solar system. It is named after Mars, the god of war in Roman mythology (the counterpart to Ares in Greek mythology), because of its red color as viewed in the night sky. This feature also earned it the name "The Red Planet." Mars has two moons (Phobos a...

NASA: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which was established in 1958, is the agency responsible for the public space program of the United States of America. It is also responsible for long-term civilian and military aerospace research....

Viking program: NASA's Viking program consisted of two unmanned space missions to Mars, Viking 1 and Viking 2. Each mission had a satellite designed to photograph the surface of Mars from orbit, and to act as a communication relay for the Viking lander that each mission carried. It was the most expensive and ambiti...

Viking 1 related Images and Photos (experimental)

Viking Milk	Viking Raiders	Viking Ship Replica	Warrior Viking T-Shirt
Entourage Viking Quest T-Shirt	Danish Viking Ship Raven at Sea	Fleet of Viking Ships at Sea	Norwegian Viking Ship Excavated at Gokstad
Minnesota Vikings "Vicious Viking"	Viking Raiding Party Heading for the Island of Heligoland	The Big Lebowski Maude (Bowling Viking) Bobble Head	The Funeral of a Viking Chief