NASA’s Viking 1 achieved the first successful soft landing on Mars in 1976.
Viking 1 launched from Earth on August 20, 1975, and entered orbit around Mars in June 1976. Its lander touched down in Chryse Planitia on July 20, 1976, becoming the first spacecraft to land successfully on Mars and return data from the surface.
The lander photographed its surroundings, analyzed Martian soil, monitored weather, and conducted biology experiments. The mission found no conclusive evidence of microbial life, but it greatly expanded knowledge of Mars’s surface and atmosphere. Viking 1’s orbiter also mapped large portions of the planet.
Viking 2 landed successfully several months later in Utopia Planitia. Mariner 9 was the first spacecraft to orbit Mars, but it did not land. Mars Pathfinder arrived much later, in 1997, and carried the Sojourner rover.