Historical Photo Of The Month - November 2002

Surveyor 6 Launch
Photograph Number 211-2072Ac

On November 7, 1967 Surveyor 6 was launched. It was one of a series of Surveyor spacecraft that performed a soft landing on the moon and obtained postlanding television pictures of the lunar surface, to be used in selecting potential landing sites for Apollo. The Mission Summary gives an overview of Surveyor 6 activities and events, from launch to loss of signal in December 1967. [Surveyor VI Mission Report, Part I. Mission Description and Performance, Technical Report 32-1262, September 15, 1968, pp 4-9.]

Surveyor 6 used an Atlas launch vehicle as its first stage and a Centaur second stage, with the spacecraft encapsulated in a laminated fiberglass nose fairing. It is shown above, just as the launch vehicle lifted off from Launch Pad 36B at John F. Kennedy Space Center.

For more information about the Surveyor project or the History of JPL, please contact the JPL Archives.

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