Viking 1 lands on Mars

On 20 July 1976 the Viking 1 lander touched down on Mars, becoming the first fully successful Mars lander in history. It was part of NASA's Viking programme, made up of two spacecraft each consisting of an orbiter and a lander. It operated for 2,307 days, or 2,245 Martian solar days, the longest extraterrestrial surface mission until the record was broken by the Opportunity rover on 19 May 2010.