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The Cost of NASA's Viking missions

The Viking missions cost $1.06 billion, which paid for two orbiters and two landers that successfully touched down on Mars in 1976.

This was a substantial investment, and, when adjusted for inflation, remains NASA's most expensive single planetary science project.

Annual spending for the Viking projects peaked in fiscal year 1974, the year before their launch. Operations funding continued through 1980, when the final orbiter and the Viking 2 lander were deactivated.  The Viking 1 lander data continued to send data through 1982, when an errant command ended the mission. This investment was too small to be reported in 1981 or 1982.

Chart of Viking Mars mission costs per fiscal year.

Annual spending on Viking, by fiscal year. The two spacecraft launched in 1975 and began Mars surface operations in the summer of 1976. "1976 TQ" is a special transition quarter, a product of a one-time restructuring of the U.S. budgeting process. Source: Planetary Science Budget Dataset, accessible on Google Sheets or downloadable as an Excel file.

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Viking Program Annual Expenditures Excel CSV Google Sheets

Viking cost more than other of NASA's Mars mission before or after. Even the flagship Curiosity and Perseverance rover missions were modest affairs by Viking standards (though, to be fair, Viking was composed of four different spacecraft).

A multi-line chart showing annual expenditures for every robotic NASA Mars mission measured against the number of years from each project's start. Viking represents the largest peak.

Annual spending for NASA's Mars missions, adjusted for inflation. The chart lists annual spending levels for Mariners 3 & 4, Mariners 6 & 7, Mariner 8 & 9, Viking, Mars Observer, Mars Pathfinder, Mars Global Surveyor, MPL/MCO, Mars Odyssey, Spirit & Opportunity, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Curiosity, Phoenix, MAVEN, InSight, Perseverance, and Mars Sample Return. Inflation adjusted to 2025 using NASA's New Start Index.

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The Viking landers and science instruments accounted for 57% of the project's cost, with the orbiters, derived from prior Mariner-class missions launched since the 1960s, were substantially cheaper. The spacecraft launches on the new Titan IIIE rocket was itself a substantial investment, and represented the heaviest science payload launched at that point.

A treemap visualizing the major subprogram elements of the Viking project, including lander costs, orbiter costs, science instruments, operations, and program management.

Viking was not a single program, but a four-spacecraft fleet. NASA built two landers and two orbiters, each managed at separate NASA centers, and the orbiter/lander combo required the most powerful rocket available at the time to launch them, the new Titan III.

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