Former langley historian. He spent some time year before we set him to jpl, and then our last panelist, glenn bugos, currently with ames. And with that, lets go to dr. Bill barry. Hes going to moderate our panel and begin give us the beginnings of some great stories. Thanks, bill. [applause] bill thanks, walt. Good afternoon, everybody. This is a great opportunity, what happened 40 years ago today and tomorrow. I would imagine that 40 years ago today, the 19th of july, 1976, there was a lot of nailbiting and concerned going on around here. For good reason. Getting to mars is hard to do. No one had done it before successfully. Not that people had tried. The soviets had made at least six attempts to land something on mars until that point. None of them had been successful. They did get something on the surface but it lasted for about 40 seconds of data transmission. So mars 3 not a great success. Folks here were understandably nervous. The spaceage have been going on for since 1957. Gett
The smithsonian institution. To his right is dr. Eric conway, historian and former langley historian. He spent some time year before jpl, and then our last, currently with aims. And lets go to bill. Will moderate our panel and give us some great stories. Thanks, bill. [applause] bill thanks, everybody, and this is a great opportunity, what hath than 40 on years ago today and tomorrow. Happened 40 years ago today and tomorrow. Hat happened. Reason, it is really attempting to land on mars. No one has been able to do it before. Of until six attempts that point, and none of them completely successful. Were about 40 seconds of data transmission. 3 not a great success. We got to the moon in the first 20 years, but getting to mars was harder. Rooms many of you in the as i guess from the looks at things might have been involved in that project, or were younger and were not there, but it was an exciting time, reaching out to try to take a big leap in terms of understanding if there was life on
One with a pedigree of nasa and aerospace history, which is deep abroad and will have a fascinating discussion today. Let me start out, dr. Bilberry to my right is a current nasa chief historian from nasa from watching nbc roger,right is dr. Currently the associate director of collection and Territorial Affairs at the smithsonian institution. To his right is dr. Eric conway, the gpl historian and former langley historian. He spent time here before we sent them out to jpl. Current glenn, the history and nasa ames. Let me introduce you dr. Bill barry from headquarters will moderate our panel, and give us the beginnings of a great story. Thanks, bill. [applause] thanks, walt. Good afternoon, everybody. This is a great opportunity for us all to learn about viking and what happened 40 years ago. I imagine that 40 years ago today, on the 19th of july 1976, there was a lot of nailbiting and concern going on in the langley area and perhaps the other side of the coast out in california. For goo