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One Year Ago Today: NASA’s New Horizons Probe Completes Successful Flyby Of Pluto

In a journey nearly a decade in the marking, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft successfully completed its historic flyby of the dwarf planet Pluto on Tuesday, July 14. Mission controllers received a signal from the spacecraft indicating it was healthy and completed its scheduled science observations at 8:52:37 p.m. EDT.

July 20, 1976 - Viking 1 makes first Martian landing.

Paving the way for generations of Martian landers and orbiters, NASA’s Viking 1 mission became the first spacecraft to safely land on the Red Planet’s surface on this day in 1976.  Following launch on a Titan IIIE rocket, Viking’s 10-month cruise to Mars culminated in orbit insertion on June 19. Landing was initially planned for the United State’s Bicentennial on July 4, 1976, but initial reconnaissance of the landing site proved to be too rough for the spacecraft. Landing was delayed to July 20th at Chryse Planitia. Two 1,270 pound landers complimented two orbiters as part of NASA’s Viking program. Viking 1 launched on August 20, 1975 and landed on July 20, 1976, while Viking 2 launched on September 9, 1975 and landed on September 3, 1976.

The first photograph ever taken from the surface of Mars showing one of Viking 1′s landing pads. Viking’s science instruments provided the first in-situ, or ground based observations of Martian seismic, atmospheric, and chemical activity. Since the biological compatibility of Mars’ surface was completely unknown at the time, both Viking landers carried instruments to directly test of organic life. Of the four, three instruments returned negative results while one returned a positive result.  This discrepancy was first attributed to the chemical reactions of inorganic compounds in the Martian soil, but has been disputed in recent years as data from other Martian missions has been analyzed.

Viking 1 far outlasted its designed operational lifetime of 90 days, transmitting data until November 11, 1982. Upon its deactivation, it was named the Thomas Mutch Memorial Station after the leader of the program’s imaging team.

The second launch from Cape Canaveral - the Bumper #7 missile from LC-3 - photographed from the top of the Cape lighthouse, July 29, 1950.  Bumper #7 was slated to launch on July 19, but a misfire on the pad forced a delay. Bumper #8 therefore was readied for launch on July 24, and became Cape Canaveral’s first-ever rocket launch. Five days later, Bumper 7 successfully launched, though it was also the rocket’s last flight from the Cape.

"Yes gentleman," continued the orator, "in spite of the opinions of certain narrow-minded people, who would shut up the human race upon this globe, as within some magic circle which it must never outstep, we shall one day travel to the moon, the planets, and the stars, with the same facility, rapidity, and certainty as we now make the voyage from Liverpool to New York! Distance is but a relative expression, and must end by being reduced to zero."