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Events on Friday 4 July 1997 1
1997Mars Pathfinder lands on MarsFirst successful Mars rover mission, SojournerNASA's Mars Pathfinder spacecraft landed on Mars and deployed the Sojourner rover, the first wheeled vehicle to operate on another planet. The mission returned thousands of images and analyzed Martian rocks and soil. It reestablished American interplanetary exploration after a two-decade gap since Viking.