Several lunar surface vehicles received national attention:

• NASA announced that it had dropped plans for developing a small rover to be carried to the moon aboard soft-landing Surveyor spacecraft. This action, the space agency said, stemmed from a desire to concentrate on the development of the spacecraft per se and on its scientific instrumentation.

• Surveyor; Atlas Centaur 6 - . Payload: Surveyor-SD-2. Mass: 950 kg (2,090 lb). Nation: USA. Agency: JPL, NASA. Class: Moon. Type: Lunar probe. Spacecraft: Surveyor. USAF Sat Cat: 1503 . COSPAR: 1965-064A. Centaur AC-6 launched dummy Surveyor payload into a barycentric / translunar orbit..

• Surveyor Model - . Payload: Surveyor SD-3. Mass: 784 kg (1,728 lb). Nation: USA. Agency: JPL, NASA. Class: Moon. Type: Lunar probe. Spacecraft: Surveyor. Decay Date: 1966-05-05 . USAF Sat Cat: 2139 . COSPAR: 1966-030A. Apogee: 336 km (208 mi). Perigee: 182 km (113 mi). Inclination: 30.70 deg. Period: 89.70 min. Launch vehicle test. Payload was dummy Surveyor spacecraft..

• Surveyor 1 - . Payload: Surveyor SC-1. Mass: 269 kg (593 lb). Nation: USA. Agency: JPL, NASA. Class: Moon. Type: Lunar probe. Spacecraft: Surveyor. Decay Date: 1966-06-02 . USAF Sat Cat: 2185 . COSPAR: 1966-045A.

  The first operational Atlas/Centaur (AC-10) carried the NASA Surveyor I spacecraft to the moon in a direct ascent lunar transfer trajectory. This was the first in a series of seven Surveyors designed to develop soft-landing technology and to provide basic scientific and engineering data in support of Project Apollo. On 2 June, Surveyor I became the first U.S. spacecraft to soft-land on the moon and transmit television pictures Surveyor 1 soft landed on the moon in the Ocean of Storms and began transmitting the first of more than 11,150 clear, detailed television pictures to Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Deep Space Facility, Goldstone, Calif. The landing sequence began 3,200 kilometers above the moon with the spacecraft traveling at a speed of 9,700 kilometers per hour. The spacecraft was successfully slowed to 5.6 kilometers per hour by the time it reached 4-meter altitude and then free-fell to the surface at 13 kilometers per hour. The landing was so precise that the three footpads touched the surface within 19 milliseconds of each other, and it confirmed that the lunar surface could support the LM. It was the first U.S. attempt to soft land on the moon.

• Surveyor vernier engine to be fired after landing - . Nation: USA. Related Persons: Pickering. Program: Apollo. Spacecraft: LM Descent Propulsion, LM RCS, Surveyor.

  MSC Director Robert R. Gilruth requested of Jet Propulsion Laboratory Director William H. Pickering that JPL fire the Surveyor spacecraft's vernier engine after the Surveyor landed on moon, to give insight into how much erosion could be expected from an LM landing. The LM descent engine was to operate until it was about one nozzle diameter from landing on the lunar surface; after the Surveyor landed, its engine would be about the same distance from the surface. Gilruth told Pickering that LaRC was testing a reaction control engine to establish surface shear pressure forces, surface pressures, and back pressure sources, and offered JPL that data when obtained.

• Surveyor 2 - . Payload: Surveyor SC-2. Mass: 292 kg (643 lb). Nation: USA. Agency: JPL, NASA. Class: Moon. Type: Lunar probe. Spacecraft: Surveyor. Decay Date: 1966-09-23 . USAF Sat Cat: 2425 . COSPAR: 1966-084A.

  Soft lunar landing attempt failed. Surveyor II was launched from Cape Kennedy at 8:32 a.m. EDT. The Atlas-Centaur launch vehicle placed the spacecraft on a nearly perfect lunar intercept trajectory that would have missed the aim point by about 130 kilometers. Following injection, the spacecraft successfully accomplished all required sequences up to the midcourse thrust phase. This phase was not successful because of the failure of one of the three vernier engines to ignite, causing eventual loss of the mission. Contact with the spacecraft was lost at 5:35 a.m. EDT, September 22, and impact on the lunar surface was predicted at 11:18 p.m. on that day.

• Surveyor SD-4 - . Payload: Surveyor SD-4. Mass: 951 kg (2,096 lb). Nation: USA. Agency: JPL, NASA. Class: Moon. Type: Lunar probe. Spacecraft: Surveyor. Decay Date: 1966-11-06 . USAF Sat Cat: 2512 . COSPAR: 1966-095A. Apogee: 406,200 km (252,400 mi). Perigee: 166 km (103 mi). Inclination: 29.60 deg. Period: 15,912.00 min. Launch vehicle test. Centaur D AC-9 put Surveyor spacecraft payload into geosynchronous transfer orbit.

• Apollo Site Selection Board - . Nation: USA. Program: Apollo. Spacecraft: Surveyor.

  The Apollo Site Selection Board meeting at NASA Hq. March 29 heard MSC presentations on lunar landing site selection constraints, results of the Orbiter II screening, and reviews of the tasks for site analysis. MSC made recommendations for specific sites on which to concentrate during the next four months and recommended that the landing sites for the first lunar landing mission be selected by August 1. The Board accepted the recommendations. A Surveyor and Orbiter meeting the following day considered the targeting of the Surveyor C mission and the Lunar Orbiter V mission. MSC representatives at the two meetings were John Eggleston and Owen E. Maynard.

• Surveyor 3 - . Payload: Surveyor SC-3. Mass: 283 kg (623 lb). Nation: USA. Agency: JPL, NASA. Class: Moon. Type: Lunar probe. Spacecraft: Surveyor. Decay Date: 1967-04-20 . USAF Sat Cat: 2756 . COSPAR: 1967-035A. Soft landed on Moon; perrformed soil sample tests and imaged lunar surface..

• Surveyor 4 vernier engine to be fired after touchdown - . Nation: USA. Program: Apollo. Spacecraft: Surveyor.

  MSC Director Robert R. Gilruth told George E. Mueller, NASA OMSF, that MSC desired that the vernier engine be fired after the touchdown of Surveyor IV on the lunar surface. He reminded Mueller that this experiment was supposed to have been performed on Surveyor III and was of prime importance to Apollo. The fact that Surveyor III landed with the vernier engine firing and did not experience any significant erosion had also been of importance to the Apollo program. He requested that Surveyor IV be targeted for the Apollo landing site in the Sinus Medii area. As a lower priority experiment, Gilruth said MSC would like to get a limited amount of photography on the first lunar day, which would allow a limited assessment of viewing conditions in earthshine.

• Surveyor 4 - . Payload: Surveyor SC-4. Mass: 283 kg (623 lb). Nation: USA. Agency: JPL, NASA. Class: Moon. Type: Lunar probe. Spacecraft: Surveyor. Decay Date: 1967-07-17 . USAF Sat Cat: 2875 . COSPAR: 1967-068A. Soft lunar landing attempt failed..

• Surveyor 5 - . Payload: Surveyor SC-5. Mass: 279 kg (615 lb). Nation: USA. Agency: JPL, NASA. Class: Moon. Type: Lunar probe. Spacecraft: Surveyor. Decay Date: 1967-09-11 . USAF Sat Cat: 2937 . COSPAR: 1967-084A. Soft lunar landing; returned 19,000 photos, soil data..

• Surveyor 6 - . Payload: Surveyor SC-6. Mass: 280 kg (610 lb). Nation: USA. Agency: JPL, NASA. Class: Moon. Type: Lunar probe. Spacecraft: Surveyor. Decay Date: 1967-11-10 . USAF Sat Cat: 3031 . COSPAR: 1967-112A.

  Atlas 94D was the 91st, and last, D series missile to be launched from Vandenberg AFB since 12D was launched on 9 September 1959. Soft landed on lunar Moon; photographed lunar surface; sampled lunar soil; used propulsion system to briefly lift off of lunar surface.

• Surveyor 7 - . Payload: Surveyor SC-7. Mass: 1,036 kg (2,283 lb). Nation: USA. Agency: JPL, NASA. Class: Moon. Type: Lunar probe. Spacecraft: Surveyor. Decay Date: 1968-01-10 . USAF Sat Cat: 3091 . COSPAR: 1968-001A. Soft landed on lunar Moon; photographed lunar surface; sampled lunar soil..

• Proposed landing sites for Apollo 12 - . Nation: USA. Program: Apollo. Flight: Apollo 11, Apollo 12. Spacecraft: Surveyor. In a report to the ASPO Manager, the Chief of MSC's Systems Engineering Division described Apollo Site Selection Board (ASSB) action on proposed landing sites for the Apollo 12 mission. . Additional Details: here....

• Tentative planning schedule for the Apollo program - . Nation: USA. Program: Apollo. Flight: Apollo 12, Apollo 13, Apollo 14, Apollo 15, Apollo 16, Apollo 17, Apollo 18, Apollo 19, Apollo 20. Spacecraft: Apollo Lunar Landing, Surveyor.

  NASA issued a tentative planning schedule for the Apollo program:

  Flight	Launch Plans	Tentative Landing Area
  Apollo 12	November 1969	Oceanus Procellarum lunar lowlands
  Apollo 13	March 1970	Fra Mauro highlands
  Apollo 14	July 1970	Crater Censorinus highlands
  Apollo 15	November 1970	Littrow volcanic area
  Apollo 16	April 1971	Crater Tycho (Surveyor VII impact area)
  Apollo 17	September 1971	Marius Hills volcanic domes
  Apollo 18	February 1972	Schroter's Valley, riverlike channel-ways
  Apollo 19	July 1972	Hyginus Rille region-Linear Rille, crater area
  Apollo 20	December 1972	Crater Copernicus, large crater impact area

• Decision that Apollo 12 mission would examine Surveyor III and recover its TV camera - . Nation: USA. Program: Apollo. Flight: Apollo 12. Spacecraft: Surveyor. A portion of the Apollo 12 mission would be devoted to an examination of Surveyor III and recovery of its TV camera and thermal-switch glass mirror fragments, MSC announced.. Additional Details: here....

• Apollo 12 targetting point for Surveyor 3 changed - . Nation: USA. Program: Apollo. Flight: Apollo 12. Spacecraft: LM Guidance, Surveyor.

  At the request of the Apollo 12 crew, the internal primary guidance and navigational control system targeting for descent was being changed so that the automatic guidance would land LM-6 at Surveyor III rather than at a point offset 305 meters east and 153 meters north as originally planned.

• EVA Apollo 12-2 - . Crew: Bean, Conrad. EVA Duration: 0.16 days. Nation: USA. Related Persons: Bean, Conrad. Program: Apollo. Class: Moon. Type: Manned lunar lander. Flight: Apollo 12. Spacecraft: Surveyor. Moonwalk to Surveyor 3, which had landed two years before. Recovered parts of Surveyor 3 which seemed to show that Earth bacteria could survive for that period in space and be revived..