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In contrast with the 1997 Mars Pathfinder landing event, the October 1967 Mariner 5 fly-by of Venus seems rather low-tech. While Pathfinder images were seen almost immediately by people around the world via television and the Internet, Mariner 5 returned only scientific data to the waiting mission operations area. This image shows the level of technology in use at the time. Mission status data was located on boards around the room and numbers were changed by hand. TV monitors showed the same type of data display from remote sites. "State-of-the-art" telephones, mechanical calculators, telex printers and cameras can be seen around the room.

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