The Viking Landers

The Viking Mission to Mars consisted of two spacecraft, each comprised of an orbiter and a lander.

Viking Lander 1 touched down on the surface of Mars on July 20, 1976, at 16:13 relative to local Mars midnight. The landing site is on the western slopes of Chryse Planitia at 22.483° N and 47.94° W. Viking Lander 1 faces in a southeasterly direction (141.91° clockwise from north as defined by the side of the spacecraft on which the two cameras are mounted). The spacecraft deck is tilted 3° downward in the direction 285.18° clockwise from north.

Location of the quadrangle map containing the Lander 1 site. (403 K, tiff)

Closeup of the Lander 1 site. (946 K, tiff)

Viking Lander 2 touched down at 09:48 relative to local Mars midnight on September 3, 1976, at a landing site in the Utopia Planitia region at 47.968° N and 225.71° W. It faces in the direction 29.13°. The lander has a tilt of 8.21° downward in the direction 277.7° from north.

Location of the quadrangle map containing the Lander 2 site. (405 K, tiff)

Closeup of the Lander 2 site. (931 K, tiff)

Much of the information on this page is taken from the "Viking Lander Imaging Investigation - Picture Catalog of Primary Mission", p 1. The images were taken from USGS maps I-1068 and I-1061.

PDS Imaging Node

Web Page Curator: Karen Boggs
Last modified January 14, 2003.