This Is the First Photo Ever Taken from the Martian Surface

On August 20, 1975, NASA's Viking 1 Orbiter and Lander launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Eleven months and half a billion miles later the Viking 1 lander touched down on Mars and sent home the first picture ever taken on the Martian surface. It would be just one of more than 16,000 more taken of the Red Planet by the Viking project.

But why photograph the lander's foot, when the whole Martian landscape was waiting? For science—which is the reason NASA does almost anything at all.