Surveyor on beach Credit - NASA Media Gallery

Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Surveyor series soft-landed on the moon, provided images of the lunar surface, and tested the characteristics of the lunar soil.

Mass: 269 kg (593 lb). Associated Launch Vehicle: Atlas Centaur LV-3C, Atlas Centaur SLV-3C.

• 1959 May 1 - Unmanned Lunar Soft Landing Vehicle - Program: Apollo. Launch Vehicle: Saturn I.

  The Army Ordnance Missile Command submitted to NASA a report entitled "Preliminary Study of an Unmanned Lunar Soft Landing Vehicle," recommending the use of the Saturn booster.

• 1960 July 11 - Surveyor project starts. -

  NASA selected Hughes, North American, Space Technology Laboratory, and McDonnell to study designs for the first lunar soft-landing spacecraft.

• 1960 July 9 - NASA selects companies for competitive design studies of Surveyor -

  After reviewing proposals by 37 companies, NASA awarded contracts to the Hughes Aircraft Company, McDonnell Aircraft Corporation, North American Aviation, Inc., and Space Technology Laboratories, Inc., for preliminary competitive design studies of an instrumented soft-landing lunar spacecraft, the Surveyor. The companies were scheduled to submit their reports in December.

• 1961 January 19 - Hughes to build Surveyor spacecraft -

  After evaluating preliminary design studies, NASA selected the Hughes Aircraft Company to build seven Surveyor spacecraft. This 750-pound, three-legged, unmanned spacecraft would carry 200 pounds of instruments, including zoom television cameras, a drill to sample the lunar soil, chemical analysis equipment, and a seismometer. The first Surveyor was scheduled to be launched in 1963.

• 1962 July 17 - Apollo landing zone defined - Program: Apollo.

  Joseph F. Shea, NASA Deputy Director of Manned Space Flight (Systems) , told an American Rocket Society meeting in Cleveland, Ohio, that the first American astronauts to land on the moon would come down in an area within ten degrees on either side of the lunar equator and between longitudes 270 and 260 degrees. Shea said that the actual site would be chosen for its apparent scientific potential and that the Ranger and Surveyor programs would provide badly needed information on the lunar surface. Maps on the scale of two fifths of a mile to the inch would be required, based on photographs which would show lunar features down to five or six feet in size. The smallest objects on the lunar surface yet identified by telescope were about the size of a football field.

• 1963 November 27 - Atlas Centaur 2 - Launch Site: Cape Canaveral. Launch Vehicle: Atlas Centaur LV-3C. Mass: 4,620 kg (10,180 lb). Perigee: 469 km (291 mi). Apogee: 1,478 km (918 mi). Inclination: 30.40 deg. Period: 104.60 min.

  Launch vehicle test. Launch vehicle put dummy payload into geosynchronous transfer orbit. First successful Centaur (liquid hydrogen-fueled) flight.

• 1963 November 30 - Procedure for determining Apollo landing sites - Program: Apollo.

  Verne C. Fryklund of NASA's Manned Space Sciences Division advised Bellcomm of the procedure for determining Apollo landing sites on the moon. The Manned Space Sciences chief outlined an elimination for the site selection process. For the first step, extant selenographic material would be used to pick targets of interest for Lunar Orbiter spacecraft photography. After study of the Lunar Orbiter photography, a narrower choice of targets then became the object of Surveyor spacecraft lunar missions, with final choice of potential landing sites to be made after the Surveyor program.

  The selection criteria at all stages were determined by lunar surface requirements prepared by OMSF. Fryklund emphasized that a landing at the least hazardous spot, rather than in the area with the most scientific interest, was the chief aim of the site selection process.

• 1963 September 12 - Unmanned lunar landing spacecraft to be sterilized - Program: Apollo.

  NASA announced that, in the future, unmanned lunar landing spacecraft e.g., Rangers and Surveyors) will be assembled in "clean rooms" and treated with germ-killing substances to reduce the number of microbes on exposed surfaces. These sterilization procedures, less stringent than earlier methods, were intended to prevent contamination of the lunar surface and, at the same time, avoid damage to sensitive electronic components. Heat sterilization was suspected as one of the reasons for the failure of Ranger spacecraft.

• 1964 December 11 - Surveyor SD-1 - Launch Site: Cape Canaveral. Launch Vehicle: Atlas Centaur LV-3C. Mass: 2,944 kg (6,490 lb). Perigee: 165 km (102 mi). Apogee: 178 km (110 mi). Inclination: 30.70 deg. Period: 87.80 min.

  Launch vehicle test. Centaur AC-4 put dummy Surveyor payload into geosynchronous transfer orbit

• 1965 August 11 - Surveyor; Atlas Centaur 6 - Launch Site: Cape Canaveral. Launch Vehicle: Atlas Centaur LV-3C. Mass: 950 kg (2,090 lb).

  Centaur AC-6 launched dummy Surveyor payload into a barycentric / translunar orbit.

• 1965 March 2 - Surveyor SD-1 - Launch Site: Cape Canaveral. Launch Vehicle: Atlas Centaur LV-3C. FAILURE: Failure. Mass: 951 kg (2,096 lb).

  Launch vehicle test. Launch vehicle was to have put payload into geosynchronous transfer orbit

• 1966 April 8 - Surveyor Model - Launch Site: Cape Canaveral. Launch Vehicle: Atlas Centaur LV-3C. FAILURE: Centaur propellant leak. Mass: 784 kg (1,728 lb). Perigee: 182 km (113 mi). Apogee: 336 km (208 mi). Inclination: 30.70 deg. Period: 89.70 min.

  Launch vehicle test. Payload was dummy Surveyor spacecraft.

• 1966 August 22 - Surveyor vernier engine to be fired after landing - Program: Apollo.

  MSC Director Robert R. Gilruth requested of Jet Propulsion Laboratory Director William H. Pickering that JPL fire the Surveyor spacecraft's vernier engine after the Surveyor landed on moon, to give insight into how much erosion could be expected from an LM landing. The LM descent engine was to operate until it was about one nozzle diameter from landing on the lunar surface; after the Surveyor landed, its engine would be about the same distance from the surface. Gilruth told Pickering that LaRC was testing a reaction control engine to establish surface shear pressure forces, surface pressures, and back pressure sources, and offered JPL that data when obtained.

• 1966 May 30 - Surveyor 1 - Launch Site: Cape Canaveral. Launch Vehicle: Atlas Centaur LV-3C. Mass: 269 kg (593 lb).

  Surveyor 1 soft landed on the moon in the Ocean of Storms and began transmitting the first of more than 11,150 clear, detailed television pictures to Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Deep Space Facility, Goldstone, Calif. The landing sequence began 3,200 kilometers above the moon with the spacecraft traveling at a speed of 9,700 kilometers per hour. The spacecraft was successfully slowed to 5.6 kilometers per hour by the time it reached 4-meter altitude and then free-fell to the surface at 13 kilometers per hour. The landing was so precise that the three footpads touched the surface within 19 milliseconds of each other, and it confirmed that the lunar surface could support the LM. It was the first U.S. attempt to soft land on the moon.

• 1966 October 26 - Surveyor SD-4 - Launch Site: Cape Canaveral. Launch Vehicle: Atlas Centaur LV-3C. Mass: 951 kg (2,096 lb). Perigee: 166 km (103 mi). Apogee: 406,200 km (252,400 mi). Inclination: 29.60 deg. Period: 15,912.00 min.

  Launch vehicle test. Centaur D AC-9 put Surveyor spacecraft payload into geosynchronous transfer orbit

• 1966 September 20 - Surveyor 2 - Launch Site: Cape Canaveral. Launch Vehicle: Atlas Centaur LV-3C. Mass: 292 kg (643 lb).

  Soft lunar landing attempt failed. Surveyor II was launched from Cape Kennedy at 8:32 a.m. EDT. The Atlas-Centaur launch vehicle placed the spacecraft on a nearly perfect lunar intercept trajectory that would have missed the aim point by about 130 kilometers. Following injection, the spacecraft successfully accomplished all required sequences up to the midcourse thrust phase. This phase was not successful because of the failure of one of the three vernier engines to ignite, causing eventual loss of the mission. Contact with the spacecraft was lost at 5:35 a.m. EDT, September 22, and impact on the lunar surface was predicted at 11:18 p.m. on that day.

• 1967 April 17 - Surveyor 3 - Launch Site: Cape Canaveral. Launch Vehicle: Atlas Centaur LV-3C. Mass: 283 kg (623 lb).

  Soft landed on Moon; perrformed soil sample tests and imaged lunar surface.

• 1967 July 14 - Surveyor 4 - Launch Site: Cape Canaveral. Launch Vehicle: Atlas Centaur LV-3C. Mass: 283 kg (623 lb).

  Soft lunar landing attempt failed.

• 1967 June 15 - Surveyor 4 vernier engine to be fired after touchdown - Program: Apollo.

  MSC Director Robert R. Gilruth told George E. Mueller, NASA OMSF, that MSC desired that the vernier engine be fired after the touchdown of Surveyor IV on the lunar surface. He reminded Mueller that this experiment was supposed to have been performed on Surveyor III and was of prime importance to Apollo. The fact that Surveyor III landed with the vernier engine firing and did not experience any significant erosion had also been of importance to the Apollo program. He requested that Surveyor IV be targeted for the Apollo landing site in the Sinus Medii area. As a lower priority experiment, Gilruth said MSC would like to get a limited amount of photography on the first lunar day, which would allow a limited assessment of viewing conditions in earthshine.

• 1967 March 29 - Apollo Site Selection Board - Program: Apollo.

  The Apollo Site Selection Board meeting at NASA Hq. March 29 heard MSC presentations on lunar landing site selection constraints, results of the Orbiter II screening, and reviews of the tasks for site analysis. MSC made recommendations for specific sites on which to concentrate during the next four months and recommended that the landing sites for the first lunar landing mission be selected by August 1. The Board accepted the recommendations. A Surveyor and Orbiter meeting the following day considered the targeting of the Surveyor C mission and the Lunar Orbiter V mission. MSC representatives at the two meetings were John Eggleston and Owen E. Maynard.

• 1967 November 7 - Surveyor 6 - Launch Site: Cape Canaveral. Launch Vehicle: Atlas Centaur SLV-3C. Mass: 280 kg (610 lb).

  Soft landed on lunar Moon; photographed lunar surface; sampled lunar soil; used propulsion system to briefly lift off of lunar surface.

• 1967 September 8 - Surveyor 5 - Launch Site: Cape Canaveral. Launch Vehicle: Atlas Centaur SLV-3C. Mass: 279 kg (615 lb).

  Soft lunar landing; returned 19,000 photos, soil data.

• 1968 January 7 - Surveyor 7 - Launch Site: Cape Canaveral. Launch Vehicle: Atlas Centaur SLV-3C. Mass: 1,036 kg (2,283 lb).

  Soft landed on lunar Moon; photographed lunar surface; sampled lunar soil.

• 1969 July 29 - Tentative planning schedule for the Apollo program - Program: Apollo. Flight: Apollo 12, Apollo 13, Apollo 14, Apollo 15, Apollo 16, Apollo 17, Apollo 18, Apollo 19, Apollo 20.

  NASA issued a tentative planning schedule for the Apollo program:

  Flight	Launch Plans	Tentative Landing Area
  Apollo 12	November 1969	Oceanus Procellarum lunar lowlands
  Apollo 13	March 1970	Fra Mauro highlands
  Apollo 14	July 1970	Crater Censorinus highlands
  Apollo 15	November 1970	Littrow volcanic area
  Apollo 16	April 1971	Crater Tycho (Surveyor VII impact area)
  Apollo 17	September 1971	Marius Hills volcanic domes
  Apollo 18	February 1972	Schroter's Valley, riverlike channel-ways
  Apollo 19	July 1972	Hyginus Rille region-Linear Rille, crater area
  Apollo 20	December 1972	Crater Copernicus, large crater impact area

• 1969 June 3 - Proposed landing sites for Apollo 12 - Program: Apollo. Flight: Apollo 11, Apollo 12.

  In a report to the ASPO Manager, the Chief of MSC's Systems Engineering Division described Apollo Site Selection Board (ASSB) action on proposed landing sites for the Apollo 12 mission. Additional Details: Proposed landing sites for Apollo 12 (18137).

• 1969 November 10 - Apollo 12 targetting point for Surveyor 3 changed - Program: Apollo. Flight: Apollo 12.

  At the request of the Apollo 12 crew, the internal primary guidance and navigational control system targeting for descent was being changed so that the automatic guidance would land LM-6 at Surveyor III rather than at a point offset 305 meters east and 153 meters north as originally planned.

• 1969 November 20 - EVA Apollo 12-2 - Program: Apollo. Crew: Conrad, Bean. Flight: Apollo 12.

  Moonwalk to Surveyor 3, which had landed two years before. Recovered parts of Surveyor 3 which seemed to show that Earth bacteria could survive for that period in space and be revived.

• 1969 October 12 - Decision that Apollo 12 mission would examine Surveyor III and recover its TV camera - Program: Apollo. Flight: Apollo 12.

  A portion of the Apollo 12 mission would be devoted to an examination of Surveyor III and recovery of its TV camera and thermal-switch glass mirror fragments, MSC announced. Additional Details: Decision that Apollo 12 mission would examine Surveyor III and recover its TV camera (18185).

• NASA Report, Atlas-Centaur Flight Performance for Surveyor Mission A, . Accessed at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19680014866_1968014866.pdf. -right click to download pdfs!

• NASA Report, Surveyor Lunar Roving Vehicle, phase I. Volume III - Preliminary design and system description. Book I - System description and performance characteristics Final technical report, . Accessed at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19660004186_1966004186.pdf. -right click to download pdfs!

• NASA Report, Surveyor Project Status Report, 27 November 1964, . Accessed at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19660001352_1966001352.pdf. -right click to download pdfs!

• NASA Report, Surveyor Project Status Report, 13 November 1964, . Accessed at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19660001351_1966001351.pdf. -right click to download pdfs!

• NASA Report, Surveyor Mission Operations System, . Accessed at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19660027979_1966027979.pdf. -right click to download pdfs!

• NASA Report, Centaur/Surveyor Separation Validation Test, . Accessed at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19660009177_1966009177.pdf. -right click to download pdfs!

• NASA Report, Surveyor 5 Preliminary Report, . Accessed at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19680008375_1968008375.pdf. -right click to download pdfs!

• NASA Report, Space Flight Operations Plan, Surveyor Mission P-42, . Accessed at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19660084502_1966084502.pdf. -right click to download pdfs!

• NASA Report, Surveyor 7 Mission Report. Part 2 - Science Results, . Accessed at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19680028774_1968028774.pdf. -right click to download pdfs!

• NASA Report, Surveyor Terminal Guidance, . Accessed at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19660082318_1966082318.pdf. -right click to download pdfs!

• NASA Report, Surveyor Thrust Phase Flight Control System, . Accessed at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19660088073_1966088073.pdf. -right click to download pdfs!

• NASA Report, Design Considerations for Surveyor Guidance, . Accessed at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19670003873_1967003873.pdf. -right click to download pdfs!

• NASA Report, Mechanical, optical, thermal and electrical properties of the Surveyor I landing site, . Accessed at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19670009792_1967009792.pdf. -right click to download pdfs!

• NASA Report, Surveyor spacecraft system. Volume I - Final sterilization report, Apr. 1961 - Mar. 1963, . Accessed at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19670021786_1967021786.pdf. -right click to download pdfs!

• NASA Report, The chemical analysis experiment for the Surveyor lunar mission, . Accessed at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19670003914_1967003914.pdf. -right click to download pdfs!

• NASA Report, Surveyor A /AC-10/ flash flight report, . Accessed at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19670029982_1967029982.pdf. -right click to download pdfs!

• NASA Report, Surveyor spacecraft. Volume I - Functional description, . Accessed at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19670029550_1967029550.pdf. -right click to download pdfs!

• NASA Report, Surveyor spacecraft A-21A model description, . Accessed at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19670029911_1967029911.pdf. -right click to download pdfs!

• NASA Report, Surveyor Project Status Report, 8 January 1965, . Accessed at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19660001353_1966001353.pdf. -right click to download pdfs!

• NASA Report, Surveyor III A Preliminary Report, . Accessed at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19670023253_1967023253.pdf. -right click to download pdfs!

• NASA Report, Surveyor Project Status Report as of 5 March 1965, . Accessed at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19650077353_1965077353.pdf. -right click to download pdfs!

• NASA Report, Surveyor Lunar Roving Vehicle, phase I. Volume V - System evaluation Final technical report, . Accessed at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19660004162_1966004162.pdf. -right click to download pdfs!

• NASA Report, Detail specification Surveyor system functional requirements, revision H, . Accessed at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19690008399_1969008399.pdf. -right click to download pdfs!

• Ertel , Ivan D; Morse , Mary Louise; et al, The Apollo Spacecraft Chronology Vol I - IV NASA SP-4009, NASA, 1966-1974. Accessed at: http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4009/cover.htm.

• USAF Satellite Database, USAF Institute of Technology, 1995. Accessed at: ftp://archive.afit.af.mil/pub/space/.

• McDowell, Jonathan, Jonathan's Space Home Page, Harvard University, 1997-present. Jonathan McDowell's complete on-line listing of all objects orbited and over 20,000 rocket launches Accessed at: http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html.

• NASA Report, SURVEYOR PROJECT STATUS REPORT, 5 FEBRUARY, 1965, . Accessed at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19660001354_1966001354.pdf. -right click to download pdfs!

• JPL Mission and Spacecraft Library, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 1997. Accessed at: http://msl.jpl.nasa.gov/home.html.

• Emme, Eugene M, Aeronautics and Astronautics: An American Chronology of Science and Technology in the Exploration of Space 1915-1960, NASA, 1961. Accessed at: http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/timeline.html.

• Wilson, Keith T., Spaceflight, "EVA Log 1965-1997", 1998, Volume 40, page 85.

• Bramscher, Robert G, Spaceflight, "A Survey of Launch Vehicle Failures", 1980, Volume 22, page 351.

• Lockheed Martin Coporation, Atlas Family Fact Sheets, September 1998.. Accessed at: http://www.lmco.com/ILS/txtmain/ils_lsysinfo.htm.

• McDowell, Jonathan, Launch Log, October 1998. Jonathan McDowell's complete on-line listing of all objects orbited since Sputnik. Accessed at: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/log/launch.html.

• NASA Report, Surveyor Program Results Final Report, . Accessed at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19690027073_1969027073.pdf. -right click to download pdfs!

• NASA Report, Surveyor 1-A Preliminary Report, . Accessed at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19660020191_1966020191.pdf. -right click to download pdfs!

• NASA Report, Surveyor I Mission Report. Part I - Mission Description and Performance, . Accessed at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19660026658_1966026658.pdf. -right click to download pdfs!

• NASA Report, Surveyor I Mission Report. Part II - Scientific Data and Results, . Accessed at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19670000738_1967000738.pdf. -right click to download pdfs!

• NASA Report, Surveyor Spacecraft System - Surveyor 2 Flight Performance Final Report, . Accessed at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19680009188_1968009188.pdf. -right click to download pdfs!

• NASA Report, Surveyor Landing Radar Test Program Review Final Report, . Accessed at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19670028593_1967028593.pdf. -right click to download pdfs!

• NASA Report, Surveyor Launch Opportunities for mid-1965 through 1968, . Accessed at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19650017858_1965017858.pdf. -right click to download pdfs!

• NASA Report, Surveyor Project Status Report, 15 February 1965, . Accessed at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19660001355_1966001355.pdf. -right click to download pdfs!

• NASA Report, Design study requirements for a lunar soft landing spacecraft (Surveyor), . Accessed at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19750069190_1975069190.pdf. -right click to download pdfs!

• NASA Report, Scientific Objectives, Capabilities, and Calibration Requirements of hte Surveyor S/C TV Camera System Final Engineering Report, . Accessed at: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19660020173_1966020173.pdf. -right click to download pdfs!

• Krebs, Gunter, Gunter's Space Page, University of Frankfurt, 1996. Accessed at: http://www.skyrocket.de/space.

• NASA Report, Rangers and Surveyors to the Moon, . Accessed at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/fact_sheets/rangsurv.pdf. -right click to download pdfs!