Surveyor 6
Surveyor 6 — a fully successful lander in Sinus Medii (launched 7 November 1967). After its survey it briefly re-fired its engines and hopped a few metres to one side — the first controlled liftoff from the surface of another world.
Key facts
Mission & specifications
Mission
- Operator
- NASA / JPL
- Launched
- November 7, 1967
- Status
- Completed
Trajectory
- Distance from the Sun
- 1.01 AU
- Distance from Earth
- 435,386 km
- Distance from Venus
- 0.603 AU
Mission
Surveyor 6 was a complete success, and it ended with a small stunt of real engineering importance. Launched on 7 November 1967, it landed cleanly in Sinus Medii, near the centre of the Moon's visible face, and returned some 30,000 images along with soil chemistry. Then, on 17 November, controllers did something no spacecraft had done before: they re-fired its engines. Surveyor 6 lifted a few metres off the surface, translated a couple of metres to the side, and set down again — the first controlled liftoff and landing on another world. Beyond the spectacle, the hop let cameras photograph the original landing spot and its disturbed soil, and it demonstrated that a craft could, in principle, take off from the Moon again.
- 1967MoonLander
After landing in Sinus Medii it briefly re-fired its engines and hopped a few metres — the first controlled liftoff from the surface of another world.
Images
Images from open archives · credit shown per image