Mission Details
| Mission Name: Surveyor 1 |
| Mission Type: Lunar Lander |
| Operator: NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) |
| Launching State: United States |
| Location: Oceanus Procellarum |
| Latitude: -2.474 |
| Longitude: -43.339 |
| Launch Date: 30 May 1966, 14:41:01 UT |
| Landing Date: 2 June 1966, 06:17:36 UT |
| Objects on or Related to Site: Surveyor 1 |
| 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.
The mission of Surveyor 1 was to demonstrate the technology necessary to achieve landing and operations on the lunar surface.
Read more:
https://www.lpi.usra.edu/lunar/missions/surveyor/
Heritage Consideration
Surveyor 1 collected information about the lunar surface that informed the planning for the Apollo crewed lunar landings.
Object on or Related to Site
| Object Name: Surveyor 1 | |
| Cospar: 1966-045A | |
| Norad: N/A | |
| Location: Precise location unknown or undisclosed. | |
| Launch Date: 30 May 1966, 14:41:01 UT | |
| Landing Date: 2 June 1966, 06:17:36 UT | |
| Deployment: N/A | |
| End Date: 13 July 1966 | |
| Function: Lunar landing feasibility and data collection. | |
| Image Source: NASA |
Description
The specific primary objectives for this mission were to:
- Demonstrate the capability of the Surveyor spacecraft to perform successful midcourse and terminal maneuvers, and to achieve a soft landing on the Moon.
- Demonstrate the capability of the Surveyor communications system and Deep Space Network to maintain communications with the spacecraft during its flight and after a soft landing.
- Demonstrate the capability of the Atlas/Centaur launch vehicle to inject the Surveyor spacecraft on a lunar intercept trajectory.
Secondary objectives were to obtain engineering data on spacecraft subsystems used during cruise, descent and after landing. Tertiary objectives were to obtain postlanding TV pictures of a spacecraft footpad, the surface material immediately surrounding it and the lunar topography, and to obtain data on radar reflectivity and bearing strength of the lunar surface and on spacecraft temperatures.
Read more:
https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1966-045A
