Viking Mars Lander
July 20, 1976 was the day that Viking 1 departed from the space orbiter over Mars. This vehicle was one of the two Mars orbiters in the Viking Program. This craft was designed to go into orbit, separate from the main orbiter, and land on Mars. Several landing plans had to be aborted because of rough terrain on Mars. This was confirmed by images that were taken by the Viking. The Viking had traveled for over ten months to arrive at Mars. It started taking images 5 days before orbit insertion. It was launched into space by a Titan/Centaur vehicle. This craft, and its brother, are still taking images today.