The cover of the album features an image by Viking 1, the first spacecraft to land on Mars; the album's liner notes include additional imagery of the planet's landscape as taken by the spacecraft on July 20, 1976.
The Viking 1 Lander was named the Thomas Mutch Memorial Station in January 1982 in honor of the leader of the Viking imaging team.
•
Landing on Mars was planned for July 4, 1976, the United States Bicentennial, but imaging of the primary landing site showed it was too rough for a safe landing.
At the time of his retirement as director, in 1976, the Voyager missions were about to launch on tours of the outer planets and Viking 1 was on its way to land on Mars.
Viking | Viking Age | Viking FK | Viking Way | Viking Press | Vicky the Viking | Viking program | Viking Moses | Viking 1 | Viking sword | Viking Skull | Viking ships | Viking Eggeling | Viking age | viking | Vicke Viking | Viking Stadion | "Viking" John Biddlecomb | Viking halberd | Viking Cup | Viking Bridge | Viking Björk | Viking, Alberta | Viking Airlines | ''The Viking'' | SS Viking | Sign for the Viking Restaurant (and Fjord Room), Viking Village shopping center, reflects Stanwood's Scandinavia | Papa Bue's Viking Jazz Band | MS Viking Valiant | MS ''Viking Song'' |