09/03/1976 USA, Viking 2 Lands on Mars

Cover Commemorates Viking 2 Sending Images from Mars

The Viking 2 spacecraft was launched on September 9, 1975, and was directed toward Mars.  The following August, the Orbiter began sending images of Mars back to Earth.  On September 3, 1976, the Lander touched down on Martian soil and its cameras began taking images immediately.   This cover honors the arrival of those first photos back to researches at NASA.  It includes a newspaper article describing those first images and teh researchers' reactions.  The cover is a neat reminder of NASA's early missions to Mars.