Viking Costs Chart

Viking costs per fiscal year. The two spacecraft launched in 1975 and began Mars surface operations in the summer of 1976. The chart does not include the costs associated with the 1976 transition quarter, a product of a one-time restructuring of the U.S. budgeting process. Source: Planetary Science Budget Dataset, compiled by Casey Dreier for The Planetary Society (accessible on Google Sheets or downloadable as an Excel file).