vio1_v_bw_o_n (76-H-512, 76-HC-641, Viking 1-26, P-16940B, SCR2 RECT BC7685)
“America’s Bicentennial emblem, stored for more than a year on Viking Orbiter 1’s tape recorder and carried from Earth to Mars, was transmitted back to Earth today over a distance of more than 203 million miles. The picture was taken June 12, 1975, by one of the Orbiter’s two TV cameras during pre-launch test activities at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Viking 1 was launched August 20, 1975, and went into orbit around Mars on June 19, 1976. The red, white and blue star symbol of the United States’ two centuries as a nation was recorded three time--through red, green and violet filters. All three frames were played back to Earth and have been reconstructed into the color picture. They were received at the Deep Space Network station at Canberra, Australia, and relayed to the Viking Mission Control and Computing Center at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. The Bicentennial emblem will be carried to the surface of Mars on the body of the Viking Lander on July 17. The Viking Project is managed by the NASA Langley Research Center of Hampton, Virginia. The Orbiter was designed and built by JPL.”
vio1_v_bw_o_n (76-H-512, 76-HC-641, Viking 1-26, P-16940B, SCR2 RECT BC7685)
“America’s Bicentennial emblem, stored for more than a year on Viking Orbiter 1’s tape recorder and carried from Earth to Mars, was transmitted back to Earth today over a distance of more than 203 million miles. The picture was taken June 12, 1975, by one of the Orbiter’s two TV cameras during pre-launch test activities at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Viking 1 was launched August 20, 1975, and went into orbit around Mars on June 19, 1976. The red, white and blue star symbol of the United States’ two centuries as a nation was recorded three time--through red, green and violet filters. All three frames were played back to Earth and have been reconstructed into the color picture. They were received at the Deep Space Network station at Canberra, Australia, and relayed to the Viking Mission Control and Computing Center at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. The Bicentennial emblem will be carried to the surface of Mars on the body of the Viking Lander on July 17. The Viking Project is managed by the NASA Langley Research Center of Hampton, Virginia. The Orbiter was designed and built by JPL.”