449. *[Viking 1] THE HISTORIC FIRST COLOUR PHOTOGRAPH EVER CAPTURED ON THE SURFACE OF MARS, THE RED PLANET: first published version NASA, 21 July 1976 Printed 1976. Vintage chromogenic print on resin coated Kodak paper [NASA image Viking 1-46]. With NASA caption numbered "76-H-558", "76-HC-655", "Viking 1-46", "P-17114" and "This paper manufactured by Kodak" watermark on the reverse (issued by NASA Head Quarters, Washington, D.C). 20.3 x 25.4 cm. (8 x 10 in.) Historical context Launched on August 20, 1975, Viking 1 became the first unmanned spacecraft to land on Mars, achieving this historic milestone on July 20, 1976. The following day, it captured this groundbreaking first colour photograph on the surface of the Red Planet. This is the extremely rare original version published by NASA, with another version featuring different colour processing released later. [NASA caption] First colour picture taken on the surface of Mars today by the Viking 1 Lander shows that the Martian soil consists mainly of reddish fine-grained material. However, small patches of black or blue-black soil are found deposited around many of the foreground rocks. Most of the rocks are also coated with a reddish stain except where the rock's surface has been freshly fractured or abraded. There is a group of black or blue-black rock near the horizon which appears free of the reddish stain. They may be relatively young volcanic rock or older volcanic rocks very recently excavated from the subsurface. The horizon is about three kilometres (1.8 miles) from Viking 1's camera. The scene, covering about 67° from left to right, was scanned three times, each time with a different colour filter. The colour was reconstructed with computer processing. Literature TIME, 2 August 1976, p. 20