On July 20, 1976, seven years after astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin first walked on the Moon, Viking 1 landed successfully on the surface of the planet Mars. For the next six years, Viking 1 took pictures of the Mars surface and collected various other scientific data about the planet and its environment.
The United States Postal Service celebrated the Viking Mission with a postage stamp. Issued July 20, 1978, the stamp marked the two year anniversary of Viking 1’s landing on the red planet. The stamp depicts Viking 1 collecting soil from the surface of Mars.