Viking 2 — launch
Date in UTC
The Viking 2 mission is part of the American Viking program to Mars, and consisted of an orbiter and a lander essentially identical to that of the Viking 1 mission. Viking 2 was operational on Mars for 1281 sols (1,316 days; 3 years, 221 days). The Viking 2 lander operated on the surface for 1,316 days, or 1281 sols, and was turned off on April 12, 1980, when its batteries eventually failed. The orbiter worked until July 25, 1978, returning almost 16,000 images in 706 orbits around Mars. The craft was launched on September 9, 1975. Following launch using a Titan/Centaur launch vehicle and a 333-day cruise to Mars, the Viking 2 Orbiter began returning global images of Mars prior to orbit insertion.
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viking_2. Related NASA reference: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/viking-2/. Description adapted from Wikipedia contributors (CC BY-SA 4.0; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).
- Category
- Launches and Flight Tests
- Type
- Orbital launch
- Subjects
- Space transportation
- Mission
- Viking 2
- Organization
- NASA Lewis Research Center
- Participants
- USAF Space and Missile Systems Organization
- Vehicle
- Titan IIIE
- Location
- Cape Canaveral Air Station, Florida
- Country
- US
- Outcome
- Successful
Sources and attribution
- Jonathan McDowell — General Catalog of Artificial Space Objects (opens in a new tab) — Data from GCAT (J. McDowell, planet4589.org/space/gcat), CC BY 4.0. Adapted into anniversary records. (CC BY 4.0)
- Wikipedia — Viking 2 (opens in a new tab) — Adapted from Wikipedia contributors; selected sentences retained and edited for length, reference markers and pronunciation glosses. CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Article and edit history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viking_2 (CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Timeline of Space Exploration Missions 1957 to 2031 (opens in a new tab)
- NASA — Viking 2 (opens in a new tab)
- NASA NSSDCA — Viking 2 (opens in a new tab)