1976 Twin Viking 1 & 2 MARS LANDING Medallic Art Co. BRONZE MEDAL SET
Item History & Price
| Reference Number: Avaluer:23892061 | Year: 1976 |
| Type: Medal Set |
This is an awesome piece of history commemorating the AmericanSpace Viking Program.Beautiful boxed medal set consists of two 2-1/2 inch diameter (1/4 inch thick, 276 gram medals total) bronze medals issuedto commemorate the Viking Mission. Antiquebronze finish. Comes with certificate of authenticity and an historical informationcard in a nice presentation box. #1193of only 5000 sets made.HERE IS SOME MORE INFO ON V COURTESY OF WIKIPEDIA:The Viking program consisted of... a pair of American spaceprobes sent to Mars, Viking 1 and Viking 2. Each spacecraft was composed of two main parts: an orbiter designed tophotograph the surface of Mars from orbit, and a lander designed to study theplanet from the surface. The orbiters also served as communication relays forthe landers once they touched down.The Viking program grew from NASA's earlier, even moreambitious, Voyager Mars program, which was not related to the successfulVoyager deep space probes of the late 1970s. Viking 1 was launched on August20, 1975, and the second craft, Viking 2, was launched on September 9, 1975, both riding atop Titan IIIE rockets with Centaur upper stages. Viking 1 enteredMars orbit on June 19, 1976, with Viking 2 following suit on August 7.After orbiting Mars for more than a month and returningimages used for landing site selection, the orbiters and landers detached; thelanders then entered the Martian atmosphere and soft-landed at the sites thathad been chosen. The Viking 1 lander touched down on the surface of Mars onJuly 20, 1976, and was joined by the Viking 2 lander on September 3. Theorbiters continued imaging and performing other scientific operations fromorbit while the landers deployed instruments on the surface.The project cost roughly US$1 billion in 1970s dollars, equivalent to about 5 billion USD in 2018 dollars.[6] The mission wasconsidered successful and is credited with helping to form most of the body ofknowledge about Mars through the late 1990s and early 2000s.
