Viking Orbiter Team Guidance and Control Division.

A. Earl Cherniack was the Viking Orbiter team member in the Guidance and Control Division 34. (From Ezell, Edward Clinton, and Linda Neuman Ezell. 1984. On Mars: Exploration of the Red Planet. 1958-1978. NASA SP-4212, p. 194).

Viking was the culmination of a series of missions to explore the planet Mars; they began in 1964 with Mariner 4, and continued with the Mariner 6 and 7 flybys in 1969, and the Mariner 9 orbital mission in 1971 and 1972.

Viking was designed to orbit Mars and to land and operate on the planet's surface. Two identical spacecraft, each consisting of a lander and an orbiter, were built.Viking was designed to orbit Mars and to land and operate on the planet's surface. Two identical spacecraft, each consisting of a lander and an orbiter, were built.

NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, had management responsibility for the Viking project from its inception in 1968 until April 1, 1978, when the Jet Propulsion Laboratory assumed the task. Martin Marietta Aerospace in Denver, Colorado, developed the landers. NASA's Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, had responsibility for the Titan-Centaur launch vehicles. JPL's initial assignment was development of the orbiters, tracking and data acquisition, and the Mission Control and Computing Center. (From NASA Facts - Viking Mission to Mars, http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/fact_sheets/viking.pdf, accessed on June 16, 2006).