NASA launched the Viking 1 probe on August 20, 1975. To what planet was the spacecraft headed?
Viking program Viking program The Viking program consisted of a pair of American space probes sent to Mars, "Viking 1" and "Viking 2". Each spacecraft was composed of two main parts: an orbiter designed to photograph the surface of Mars from orbit, and a lander designed to study the planet from the surface. The orbiters also served as communication relays for the landers once they touched down. The Viking program grew from NASA's earlier, even more ambitious, Voyager Mars program, which was not related to the successful Voyager deep space probes of the late 1970s. "Viking 1" was launched on August 20,
Unmanned NASA missions evaporation. The supply of liquid helium was depleted on November 21, 1983, preventing further observations. The spacecraft continues to orbit close to the Earth. The telescope was a joint project of the United States (NASA), the Netherlands (NIVR), and the United Kingdom (SERC). Over 250,000 infrared sources were observed at 12, 25, 60, and 100 micrometer wavelengths. The Magellan spacecraft was a space probe sent to the planet Venus, the first unmanned interplanetary spacecraft to be launched by NASA since its successful Pioneer Orbiter, also to Venus, in 1978. It was also the first deep-space probe to be launched on