Surveyor SD-2

Launch Success

Liftoff Time (GMT)

14:31:00

Wednesday August 11, 1965

Watch Replay

24/7 Coverage

Mission Details

Surveyor SD-2

Wiki

This was the second attempt by NASA to launch a dummy Surveyor lunar lander spacecraft into a barycentric orbit toward a simulated Moon landing. Unlike the previous attempt in March 1965, this time all systems worked without fault. The Centaur fired flawlessly and put the Surveyor dynamic model on a simulated lunar trajectory so precise that it would have impacted on the Moon without a trajectory correction. Orbital parameters were 102 x 510,900 miles (164 × 822,135 kilometers) at 28.6-degree inclination. The payload reentered Earth's atmosphere after 31 days.

Highly Elliptical Orbit

1 Payload

950 kilograms

Rocket

Retired
Atlas-LV3C Centaur-D

Active 1965 to 1967


Stages

2

Launch Site

SLC-36B

Cape Canaveral SFS, Florida, USA

Fastest Turnaround

50 days 6 hours

Stats

Atlas-Centaur


6th

Mission

2nd

Mission of 1965

1965


72nd

Orbital launch attempt