On 7 August 1976, Viking 2 entered orbit around Mars.

On 7 August 1976, Viking 2 entered orbit around Mars. Just under a month later and almost a year to the date since launch, the lander separated from the orbiter and landed on the surface. The Viking program was the first to achieve a successful landing on Mars and the Viking 1 lander was the longest continual on-surface mission until Opportunity surpassed it in 2010. The Viking missions provided detailed surface images and surface chemistry analysis that served as the basis of most of our knowledge of Mars until the 1990's.

Know more:
http://mars.nasa.gov/programmissions/missions/past/viking/

Image via NASA
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_599.html

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