Viking 1 sent the first clear photograph from the Martian surface in 1976. NASA’s lander touched down in Chryse Planitia on 20 July 1976, and its cameras soon transmitted images showing the lander’s footpad and the rocky terrain around it.
The mission was part of NASA’s Viking program, which paired two orbiters with two landers to study Mars from both above and on the ground. Viking 1’s first images provided an immediate visual confirmation that the spacecraft had reached the surface and revealed a dusty, boulder-strewn landscape under a pinkish sky. A first color image followed on 21 July.
Viking 2 landed later, on 3 September 1976, at Utopia Planitia, so it was not the first surface photographer. Mars Pathfinder, another tempting option, arrived much later in 1997, while Phoenix landed in 2008. The distinction also matters because Viking 1 was the first of the Viking landers to operate on Mars, not merely the first Viking spacecraft to reach the planet.
Viking 1 continued returning science and engineering data for years, making it one of the most productive early Mars missions.