The Surveyor program

The Surveyor program consisted of seven unmanned lunar missions. Five of these spacecraft, Surveyor 1, 3, 5, 6, and 7, successfully soft-landed on the lunar surface. These missions and the resulting data are discussed. 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 for Apollo program support, and Surveyor 7 provided data from a contrasting rugged highland region.