Operation Pathfinder is a mission to which planet?

Mars Pathfinder is one of NASA's most celebrated space missions — on July 4, 1997, NASA landed a spacecraft on Mars for the first time in about two decades, following the successful Viking 1 and 2 missions. What made Pathfinder truly special was not just reaching Mars, but doing it at a fraction of the usual cost. While the flagship Viking missions cost $7 billion (inflation-adjusted), Pathfinder completed its mission at just $485 million. It carried the famous Sojourner rover — the first wheeled robot ever deployed on another planet — and sent back stunning images and scientific data that changed our understanding of the Red Planet forever.

• Launch Date: December 4, 1996 — launched aboard a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida
• Landing: Landed on July 4, 1997 on Mars's Ares Vallis, in a region called Chryse Planitia
• Sojourner Rover: First wheeled robotic rover ever operated outside the Earth-Moon system
• Scientific Goal: Analysed Martian atmosphere, climate, geology, and rock and soil composition
• Legacy: Observations added evidence that Mars was once more Earth-like, with a warmer, thicker atmosphere and much more water