Portal:Mars/Selected article/1
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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 ambitious mission ever sent to Mars. It was highly successful and formed most of the database of information about Mars until the late 1990's and early 2000's.
Viking 1 was launched on August 20, 1975, and the second craft, Viking 2, was launched on September 9, 1975, both riding atop Titan III-E rockets with Centaur upper stages. Each spacecraft consisted of an orbiter and a lander. After orbiting Mars and returning images used for landing site selection, the orbiter and lander detached and the lander entered the Martian atmosphere and soft-landed at the selected site. The orbiters continued imaging and other scientific operations from orbit while the landers deployed instruments on the surface.
