Surveyor were a series of American soft-landing lunar exploration spacecraft developed the Hughes Aircraft company during the 1960's for NASA's unmanned lunar exploration programme. The Surveyor spacecraft were launched by the Centaur rockets, the first Surveyor, Surveyor 1 being launched successfully in 1966 from Cape Kennedy, landing on the moon's surface and sending back over 10,000 photographs of the moon's surface.
Surveyor 2 was launched in 1966, but crashed into the moon after a vernierrocket failed during mid-course correction manoeuvres.
Surveyor 3 was launched in 1967 and landed successfully in the Ocean of Storms on the moon's surface, and sent back photographs and television images and also data about the moon's surface material.
Surveyor 4 was launched in 1967 but crashed into the surface of the moon.
Surveyor 5 was launched in 1967 and landed successfully in the Sea of Tranquility on the moon despite a valve failure. Surveyor 5 carried radioactive material which was used to bombard the moon's surface with alpha particles to allow identification of atoms in the lunar surface. Research Surveyor
Abbreviations
Aircraft
Research Surveyor