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Mission record

Lunar Orbiter 3

Also known as Lunar Orbiter-C, Orbiter-C, Orbiter III, LunarOrbiter3

NASA · Launched

Explore trajectory

Completed · Partial success

NASA lunar orbiter that photographed the lunar surface to confirm safe landing sites for the Surveyor and Apollo missions. It returned 477 high resolution and 149 medium resolution frames, including a frame showing the Surveyor 1 landing site, before its film advance motor burned out, and was commanded to impact the Moon on 9 October 1967.

Destinations
Moon
Launch vehicle
Atlas-Agena D
Launch site
Cape Canaveral, United States
Countries
United States
Mission types
Orbiter

Chronology

Mission timeline

  1. Launch

    Lunar Orbiter 3 launched

    Earth

  2. Orbit insertion

    Injected into elliptical near-equatorial lunar orbit

    Moon

  3. Milestone

    Film advance motor burned out, ending readout

    Moon

  4. Impact

    Commanded impact on the lunar surface

    Moon

Mission architecture

Vehicles

  • Lunar Orbiter 3 · Orbiter

    Destinations: Moon

Trajectory record

Trajectory dataset not yet available

No verified trajectory dataset is committed for this mission, so Mission Atlas renders no path.

Provenance

Sources

Each source is listed once and labeled with the mission, event, trajectory, or destination/body context it supports.

Data verified through August 24, 2026