Surveyor Project - The Lunar program

The Surveyor flight spacecraft are designed to span the gap between the Ranger Project and the Apollo Project by making soft landings on the Moon to extend our knowledge of lunar conditions and determine the suitability of sites for proposed Apollo spacecraft landings. Hughes Aircraft Company (HAC), Space Systems Division, is under contract to fabricate the Surveyor A-21 spacecraft. The launch vehicle, a combination Atlas/Centaur, is provided by General Dynamics/Convair. Control, command, and tracking functions for the Surveyor missions are performed by the Surveyor Mission Operations System and the JPL Deep Space Network.

Surveyor I , the first flight spacecraft, was launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida, on May 30, 1966, and soft-landed on the Moon on June 2, 1966. By June 14, when lunar sunset occurred, approximately 100,000 commands had been received by the spacecraft, and 10,338 pictures of the spacecraft and its immediate vicinity had been transmitted. During the second lunar day, 812 additional pictures were transmitted by Surveyor I.

Surveyor II, the second flight spacecraft, was launched from Cape Kennedy on September 20, 1966. The space-craft performed nominally until the command was given for midcourse thrust execution. At that time, one vernier engine did not ignite. The resulting imbalance of thrust from the other two vernier engines imposed a tumbling motion on the spacecraft, from which it failed to recover. The Surveyor II mission was terminated on September 22 after all contact with the spacecraft had been lost.

The third Surveyor flight spacecraft is scheduled for launch during the second quarter of 1967.