Mission Description
Launch: 30 May, 1966
Landed: 2 June, 1966, 06:17:37 UT
Landing Site: Flamsteed P (2.45°S latitude, 316.79°E longitude)In addition to proving a variety of new equipment and spacecraft design and validating the technique for landing on the Moon, Surveyor 1, the first U.S. spacecraft to land softly on the Moon, returned a large quantity of scientific data during its first two days of operation on the lunar surface. Following its landing the spacecraft transmitted 11,240 high-resolution television pictures. Surveyor 1 completed its primary mission on July 14, 1966, after transmitting, in addition to the television pictures, data on the bearing strength, temperatures, and radar reflectivity of the Moon. Subsequent engineering interrogations of the spacecraft were conducted through January 1967.
Selection of the Target Site
All Surveyor landing sites, except for the last one, were selected primarily because they were being considered as Apollo landing sites. The landing site selected for Surveyor 1 was in the southwest part of Oceanus Procellarum. The spacecraft came to rest within about 15 kilometers of the target point, on a flat surface inside a 100-kilometer crater, one radius from the edge of a rimless 200-meter crater.