'I saw humans on Mars in 1979': Ex-NASA employee

New York, Nov 27: A woman claiming to be a former NASA employee has stated that while watching some footage, she saw two humans walking on the Red Planet towards the Viking Mars lander in 1979.

Calling herself "Jackie," the woman reportedly placed a call to Coast to Coast AM radio station in the US, claiming she saw two humans walking on Mars, the International Business Times reported.

She reportedly told the radio host that in 1979, she was handling the downlink telemetry from the Viking ladder.

"That old Viking rover was running around. Then I saw two men in spacesuits - not the bulky suits we normally used, but they looked protective. They came over the horizon walking to the Viking Explorer," she was quoted as saying.

"The men' suits looked like space protective gear, but not what you would expect astronauts to wear," she added.

"There were probably about half a dozen of us downstairs. We were just maintaining the equipment. Then they cut off our video feed," Jackie told the radio host.

NASA is yet to verify her claim. The Viking Explorer is the first vehicle to send back images of Mars.

Viking 1 was launched on August 20, 1975 and the second spacecraft Viking 2 was launched on September 9, 1975.

The Viking 1 lander touched down on the surface of Mars on July 20, 1976 and was joined by the Viking 2 lander on September 3 in the same year.

The orbiters continued imaging and performing other scientific operations from orbit while the landers deployed instruments on the surface.

IANS