Surveyor 3: Lunar Landing – For All Moonkind Moon Registry

Mission Details

Mission Name: Surveyor 3

Mission Type: Lunar Lander

Operator: NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration)

Launching State: United States

Location: Oceanus Procellarum

Latitude: -3.015

Longitude: -23.418

Launch Date: 17 April 1967, 07:05:00 UT

Landing Date: 20 April 1967, 00:04:53 UT

Objects on or Related to Site:
Surveyor 3

Image Source: NASA

Description

The Surveyor program consisted of seven uncrewed lunar missions that were launched between May 1966 and January 1968. Five of these spacecraft, Surveyor 1, 3, 5, 6, and 7 successfully soft-landed on the lunar surface. In addition to demonstrating the feasibility of lunar surface landings, the Surveyor missions obtained lunar and cislunar photographs and both scientific and technological information needed for the Apollo manned landing program. Four spacecraft, Surveyor 1, 3, 5, and 6, returned data from selected mare sites from Apollo program support, and Surveyor 7 provided data from a contrasting rugged highland region.

Surveyor 3 was designed to achieve a soft landing on the lunar surface and to return lunar surface photography and other data.

Heritage Consideration

Astronauts from Apollo 12 made contact with Surveyor 3 and recovered parts to return to Earth so that scientists could evaluate the effects of nearly two-and-a-half years of exposure on the Moon’s surface.

Object on or Related to Site

Object Name: Surveyor 3
Cospar: 1967-035A
Norad: N/A
Location: Precise location unknown or undisclosed.
Launch Date: 17 April 1967, 07:05:00 UT
Landing Date: 20 April 1967, 00:04:53 UT
Deployment: N/A
End Date: N/A
Function: Lunar landing feasibility and data collection.
Image Source: NASA

Description

Surveyor 3 was the second spacecraft of the Surveyor series to achieve a lunar soft landing.

The specific objectives for this mission were to:

Perform a soft landing on the Moon within the Apollo zone and east of the Surveyor 1 landing site.
Obtain postlanding television pictures of the lunar surface.
Obtain information on lunar-surface bearing strength, radar reflectivity, and thermal properties.
Use the surface sampler to manipulate the lunar surface and observe the effects with the television camera.

On 19 November 1969 the Apollo 12 Lunar Module (LM) landed within about 180 m of the Surveyor 3 spacecraft. Astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean visited the spacecraft on their second moonwalk on 20 November, examining Surveyor 3 and its surroundings, taking photographs, and removing about 10 kg of parts from the spacecraft, including the TV camera, for later examination back on Earth.