Editing Surveyor program (section)

{{short description|1960s NASA program to soft-land robotic probes on the Moon}}
{{Use American English|date=November 2020}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2020}}
{{Infobox space program
| name = Surveyor program
| image = Surveyor diagram(English captions).jpg
| image_size = 
| alt = 
| caption = Surveyor 3 resting on the surface of the Moon, taken by [[Apollo 12]] astronauts
| country = United States
| organization = [[NASA]]
| purpose = Demonstrate [[Lunar landing|soft landing on the Moon]]
| status = Completed
| cost = US$469 million
| duration = 
| firstflight = May 30–June 2, 1966
| lastflight = January 7–10, 1968
| successes = 5
| failures = 2
| partialfailures = 
| launchsite = [[Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 36|Cape Canaveral LC-36]]
| crewvehicle = 
| launcher = [[Atlas-Centaur]]
}}
The '''Surveyor program''' was a [[NASA]] program that, from June 1966 through January 1968, sent seven [[robotic spacecraft]] to the surface of the [[Moon]]. Its primary goal was to demonstrate the feasibility of [[Soft landing (rocketry)|soft landings]] on the Moon. The Surveyor craft were the first American spacecraft to achieve soft landing on an [[Astronomical object|extraterrestrial body]]. The missions called for the craft to travel directly to the Moon on an impact trajectory, a journey that lasted 63 to 65 hours, and ended with a deceleration of just over three minutes to a soft landing.<ref name=Kloman1972/> 

The program was implemented by NASA's [[Jet Propulsion Laboratory]] (JPL) to prepare for the [[Apollo program]], and started in 1960. JPL selected Hughes Aircraft in 1961 to develop the spacecraft system.<ref name=Kloman1972>{{cite web|id=NASA SP-4901 |url=https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4901.pdf  |title=''NASA Unmanned Space Project Management - Surveyor and Lunar Orbiter'' |author=Kloman |year=1972}}</ref>  The total cost of the Surveyor program was officially $469 million.

Five of the Surveyor craft successfully soft-landed on the Moon, including the first one. The other two failed: Surveyor 2 crashed at high velocity after a failed mid-course correction, and Surveyor 4 lost contact (possibly exploding) 2.5 minutes before its scheduled touch-down.

All seven spacecraft are still on the Moon; none of the missions included returning them to Earth.  Some parts of [[Surveyor 3]] were returned to Earth by the crew of [[Apollo 12]], which landed near it in 1969.  The camera from this craft is on display at the [[National Air and Space Museum]] in Washington, DC.<ref name="auto">https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1967-035A – 24 January 2020</ref>