Mars Pathfinder Program
NASA’s Mars Pathfinder mission demonstrated a low-cost way to land on Mars and deliver the Sojourner rover. Launched on December 4, 1996, Pathfinder landed at Ares Vallis on July 4, 1997, using an airbag-assisted entry and landing system; its final successful data transmission was September 27, 1997. The mission was one of NASA’s early Discovery-class planetary investigations and was developed and managed by JPL for NASA.
Identity
- Aliases
- Mars PathfinderMars Pathfinder MissionPathfinder / Sojourner
- Domains
- spaceflight
- Name
- Mars Pathfinder Program
- Status
- completed
- Types
- explorationsciencedevelopment
Details
- Description
- NASA’s Mars Pathfinder mission demonstrated a low-cost way to land on Mars and deliver the Sojourner rover. Launched on December 4, 1996, Pathfinder landed at Ares Vallis on July 4, 1997, using an airbag-assisted entry and landing system; its final successful data transmission was September 27, 1997. The mission was one of NASA’s early Discovery-class planetary investigations and was developed and managed by JPL for NASA.
- End Date
- 1997
- Leads
- Parent Program
- Participants
- Start Date
- 1996
Assets & Meta
- Creation Time
- August 13, 2026 at 12:10:26 UTC
- Updated Time
- August 23, 2026 at 00:42:53 UTC
- Image
- Download