Mars Pathfinder Airbag Landing System

One of the most impressive exhibits at GLSC is the Mars Pathfinder airbag landing system. The Mars Pathfinder, which landed on Mars on July 4, 1997, was the United States' first Mars lander since the Viking landers in 1976. Mars Pathfinder was also the first Mars mission to include a rover, the small Sojourner.

This airbag system is a test article, having been tested at NASA Glenn's Plum Brook Station in 1995 (Plum Brook was renamed to the Neil A. Armstrong Test Facility in 2020).