Surveyor 3 was the third of seven American uncrewed lunar landers of the Surveyor programme, which prepared for the Apollo landings by studying the surface of the Moon. It touched down in April 1967 in Oceanus Procellarum, bouncing twice on landing because its radar kept the engines firing too long. The lander sent thousands of television images and used a scoop on a robot arm to dig trenches and test the strength of the soil. In November 1969 the Apollo 12 astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean landed nearby and walked to it, taking back parts such as its camera, which allowed scientists to study the effect of two and a half years on the Moon.
Before and after
- 20 February 1967Birth of Kurt Cobain
- 27 February 1967Founding of Saint Kitts and Nevis
- 1 March 1967Founding of Saint Lucia
- from 11 March 1967 to 17 April 1975Cambodian Civil War
- 17 April 1967Launch of Surveyor 3
- 19 April 1967Death of Konrad Adenauer
- 23 April 1967Launch of Soyuz 1
- 27 April 1967Birth of William Alexander of the Netherlands
- from May 1967 to December 1967Hong Kong 1967 leftist riots
More in Universe & space
- 22 June 1978Discovery of Charon
- 20 January 1986Discovery of Ophelia
- 19 February 1986Launch of Mir
- 1998Supernovae show that cosmic expansion is accelerating
- 20 November 1998Launch of International Space Station
- 10 April 2019The first image of a black hole
The era
This moment belongs to the Contemporary world (1945 CE to today), the world since 1945. You can also browse everything in the 20th century.