Apr 14 2002
From The Space Library
James S. Martin, former NASA Manager of the Viking missions to Mars, died at the age of 81. Martin had led the nationwide team of 750 engineers, scientists, and technicians that had developed the Viking 1 and Viking 2 spacecraft. The two craft had launched in 1975 and landed on Mars a year later, making Viking the first mission to successfully soft-land on the surface of another planet. Martin had joined NASA in 1964 as an Assistant Project Manager for the Lunar Orbiter, and in 1967 he had received NASA's Exceptional Service Medal for his contribution to that project. He had departed from NASA in 1976 to work for Martin Marietta Aerospace, and in 2000 NASA had asked him to leave retirement to lead its effort to restructure its Mars Exploration Program. (NASA, “Mars Viking Leader, James S. Martin Jr. Dies,” news release 02-72, 18 April 2002.)
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