Editing Surveyor program (section)

=== Surveyor 1 ===
{{Main|Surveyor 1}}
[[File:Surveyor 1 Foot Pad.jpg|thumb|Image from Surveyor 1 of its footpad in order to study [[soil mechanics]] in preparation for the Apollo crewed landings.]]
'''[[Surveyor 1]]''' was launched May 30, 1966 and sent directly into a trajectory to the Moon without any [[parking orbit]]. Its [[Retrorocket|retrorockets]] were turned off at a height of about 3.4 [[Meter|meters]] above the lunar surface. Surveyor 1 fell freely to the surface from this height, and it landed on the lunar surface on June 2, 1966, on the ''Oceanus Procellarum''. This location was at {{Lunar coords and quad cat|2.474|S|43.339|W}}.<ref>"[https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1966-045A Surveyor 1]". NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive.</ref>  This is within the northeast portion of the large crater called Flamsteed P (or the ''Flamsteed Ring'').  [[Flamsteed (crater)|Flamsteed]] itself lies within Flamsteed P on the south side.

Surveyor 1 transmitted [[video]] data from the Moon beginning shortly after its landing through July 14, 1966, but with a period of no operations during the two-week long lunar night of June 14, 1966 through July 7, 1966. 

The return of engineering information (temperatures, etc.) from Surveyor 1 continued through January 7, 1967, with several interruptions during the lunar nights. The spacecraft returned data on the motion of the Moon, which would be used to refine the map of its orbital path around the Earth as well as better determine the distance between the two worlds.<ref name="aa1967">{{cite web |title=Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1967 |url=https://history.nasa.gov/AAchronologies/1967.pdf |access-date=21 December 2021 |publisher=NASA |page=5}}</ref>