Lunar Orbiter
A series of five, highly maneuverable, Moon-orbiting
NASA spacecraft, launched in 1966–67. The Lunar Orbiters' primary
mission was to obtain topographic data in the lunar equatorial region between
43° E and 56° W to help in the selection of suitable landing sites
for the unmanned Surveyor and manned Apollo
missions. With this objective achieved by Lunar Orbiter 3, the remaining
two flights were able to carry out further photography of lunar surface
features for purely scientific purposes. Altogether, 99% of the Moon was
photographed with a resolution of 60 m or better.
The first three missions were dedicated to imaging 20 potential lunar landing
sites that had been chosen from Earth-based observations. These were flown
at low-altitude, low-inclination orbits. The fourth and fifth missions were
flown in high-altitude polar orbits. Lunar Orbiter 4 photographed the entire
nearside and 95% of the farside; Lunar Orbiter 5 completed the farside coverage
and acquired medium (20 m) and high (2 m) resolution images of 36 pre-selected
areas. The Lunar Orbiters also collected data on radiation and micrometeoroids
in the circumlunar region.
| spacecraft |
launch |
imaging |
mass (kg) |
| Lunar Orbiter 1 |
Aug. 10, 1966 |
Aug. 18-19, 1966 |
386 |
| Lunar Orbiter 2 |
Nov. 6, 1966 |
Nov. 18-25, 1966 |
390 |
| Lunar Orbiter 3 |
Feb. 5, 1967 |
Feb. 15-23, 1967 |
385 |
| Lunar Orbiter 4 |
May 4, 1967 |
May 11-26, 1967 |
390 |
| Lunar Orbiter 5 |
Aug. 1, 1967 |
Aug. 6-8, 1967 |
389 |
Related entry
Moon,
unmanned spacecraft Related categories
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