Editing Surveyor program (section)

=== Surveyor 3 ===
{{Main|Surveyor 3}}
[[Image:Apollo12ConradSurveyor.jpg|thumb|Astronaut [[Pete Conrad]] near Surveyor 3 during Apollo 12, 1969. [[Apollo Lunar Module|Lunar Module]] in the background.]]Launched on April 17, 1967, '''[[Surveyor 3]]''' landed on April 20, 1967, at the [[Mare Cognitum]] portion of the [[Oceanus Procellarum]] (S3° 01' 41.43" W23° 27' 29.55"), in a small crater that was subsequently named [[Surveyor (crater)|Surveyor]]. It transmitted 6,315 TV images to the Earth, including the [[First images of Earth from space|first images to show what planet Earth looked like from the Moon's surface]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=First image of Earth from the surface of the Moon: Surveyor 3 |url=https://www.planetary.org/space-images/first-image-of-earth-from-surveyor-3}}</ref>

Surveyor 3 was the first spacecraft to unintentionally lift off from the Moon's surface, which it did twice, due to an anomaly with Surveyor's landing radar, which did not shut off the vernier engines but kept them firing throughout the first touchdown and after it. Surveyor 3's TV and telemetry systems were found to have been damaged by its unplanned landings and liftoffs.<ref name="auto" />

Surveyor 3 was visited by [[Apollo 12]] astronauts [[Pete Conrad]] and [[Alan Bean]] in November 1969, and remains the only probe visited by humans on another [[Astronomical object|world]]. The Apollo 12 astronauts excised several components of Surveyor 3, including the television camera, and returned them to Earth for study.<ref>{{Cite web |author1=Robert Z. Pearlman |date=2019-11-23 |title=50 Years On, Where Are the Surveyor 3 Moon Probe Parts Retrieved by Apollo 12? |url=https://www.space.com/apollo-12-surveyor-3-parts-50-years.html |access-date=2024-10-02 |website=Space.com |language=en}}</ref>