Surveyor 1

Surveyor 1 was the first lunar lander in the American Surveyor program that explored the Moon.

• Launched May 30, 1966; landed June 2, 1966
• Weight on landing: 596 lb (270 kg)

A total 11,237 images were transmitted to Earth.

The successful soft landing (first ever by the U.S. on an extraterrestrial body) was in the Ocean of Storms. The spacecraft found a layer of about one inch of dust around itself.

Scientific significance of Surveyor

Before Surveyor, we did not know whether it was safe for men to land on the moon. Surveyor's shovel actually dug into the moon to determine the depth of the dust. If the depth of the dust were greater than the size of the Lunar module, it would have meant the end of the Apollo program. But when the Surveyors discovered the actual depths of the dust layer on the Moon, then a safe landing location for the astronauts could be selected.