Viking 2, the second spacecraft of NASA's Viking program to Mars, was launched September 9, 1975. It reached the Red Planet in August 1976, and the lander was separated from the orbiter on September 3. The orbiter worked until July 1978 when it was turned off. It made 706 orbits of Mars and returned almost 16,000 images.
The lander touched down we Utopia Planitia and operated on the surface for almost 4 years. Viking 2 was turned off in April 1980, when its batteries failed.
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