are you speaking about “vger”? from star trek move?
No, I'm speaking about the NASA project Viking, a Mars Orbiter/Lander that arrived at Mars in 1976 and did pretty much what today's successful Mars landing did.
What I was pointing out was that today's wonderful achievement is not the unique "first time" event that the media is making it. We actually did all this 30 years ago.
It amazes me how people forget...