With the success of the Mariner program, NASA’s Langley Research Center was assigned to manage a new program, Viking, which was going to send an Orbiter and Lander to Mars. Viking would be a true test for the Deep Space Network – tracking two spacecraft simultaneously heading to Mars on both the 26 meter and 64 meter antennas. The uplink and…
With the success of the Mariner program, NASA’s Langley Research Center was assigned to manage a new program, Viking, which was going to send an Orbiter and Lander to Mars. Viking would be a true test for the Deep Space Network (DSN) – tracking two spacecraft simultaneously heading to Mars on both the 26 meter and 64 meter antennas. The uplink and downlinks would use the S-band frequency. The orbiter also carried the higher and very new frequency, X-band.