Viking Remembered: Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the First Search for Life on Mars

Iconic painting of a Viking lander on Mars, prior to launch. The sampling arm reaches into the foreground. Image Credit: Charles Bennett/Lockheed Martin (Martin Marietta)

July 20, 1976 will be forever remembered by space enthusiasts – on that day, Viking 1 became the first spacecraft to land on another planet, in this case Mars. [...]