NASA's Mars Pathfinder landed on 4 July 1997 in Ares Vallis, using airbags that bounced it across the surface. It released Sojourner, a six-wheeled rover the size of a microwave oven and the first wheeled vehicle on Mars. Over 83 days the rover analysed rocks and soil, and the mission returned over 16,000 images and showed that the area had once been flooded. The mission was cheap and quick compared with Viking, and began a generation of successful Mars rovers.
Before and after
- 11 May 1997Deep Blue defeats Garry Kasparov
- from 15 May 1997 to 9 June 2012Premiere of Bob the Builder
- 26 June 1997Publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
- from 2 July 1997 to 1 January 19991997 Asian financial crisis
- 4 July 1997Mars Pathfinder and the Sojourner rover
- 29 August 1997Founding of Netflix
- 31 August 1997Death of Diana, Princess of Wales
- 5 September 1997Death of Mother Teresa
- 6 September 1997Discovery of Caliban
More in Exploration & discovery
- 1 October 1958NASA is founded
- 18 March 1965Alexei Leonov makes the first spacewalk
- 1 September 1985The wreck of the Titanic is found
- January 2004Spirit and Opportunity land on Mars
- 12 November 2014Rosetta's Philae lander touches down on a comet
- 23 August 2023Chandrayaan-3 lands near the lunar south pole
The era
This moment belongs to the Contemporary world (1945 CE to today), the world since 1945. You can also browse everything in the 20th century.