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Mission record

Surveyor 3

Also known as Surveyor3, Surveyor-C

NASA · Launched

Explore trajectory

Completed · Success

The second Surveyor spacecraft to achieve a lunar soft landing; it carried a surface sampler that dug trenches in the lunar soil while its television camera recorded the effects.

Destinations
Moon
Launch vehicle
Atlas-Centaur
Launch site
Cape Canaveral, United States
Countries
United States
Mission types
Lander

Chronology

Mission timeline

  1. Launch

    Surveyor 3 launched

    Earth

  2. Landing

    Surveyor 3 final touchdown in Oceanus Procellarum

    Moon

  3. Mission end

    Last data returned from Surveyor 3

    Earth

  4. Milestone

    Apollo 12 astronauts visited Surveyor 3

    Moon

Mission architecture

Vehicles

  • Surveyor 3 · Lander

    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