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Surveyor program
Sign in to save1960s NASA program that sent robotic probes to the Moon
Key facts
- Country
- United States
- Organization
- NASA
- Purpose
- Demonstrate soft landing on the Moon
- Status
- Completed
- Cost
- US$469 million
- First flight
- May 30–June 2, 1966
- Last flight
- January 7–10, 1968
- Launch site
- Cape Canaveral LC-36
- Launch vehicle
- Atlas-Centaur
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Image
- Apollo12ConradSurveyor.jpg
Show 5 more facts
- Commons category
- Surveyor program
- Commons gallery
- Surveyor program
- capital cost
- 469000000
- start time
- 1966-00-00
- end time
- 1968-00-00
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
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Article
The Surveyor program was a NASA program that, from June 1966 through January 1968, sent seven robotic spacecraft to the surface of the Moon. Its primary goal was to demonstrate the feasibility of soft landings on the Moon. The Surveyor craft were the first American spacecraft to achieve soft landing on an extraterrestrial body. The missions called for the craft to travel directly to the Moon on an impact trajectory, a journey that lasted 63 to 65 hours, and ended with a deceleration of just over three minutes to a soft landing.
The program was implemented by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to prepare for the Apollo program, and started in 1960. JPL selected Hughes Aircraft in 1961 to develop the spacecraft system. The total cost of the Surveyor program was officially $469 million.