Lunar Orbiter 1

Launch data: Designation  02394 / 66073A Launch date 10 Aug 1966 - 19:26 UT Launch site CC, LC-13 Launch vehicle Atlas-SLV3 / Agena-D (#5801/AA17) Mission Lunar orbiting photographic Operator NASA Maximum distance from Earth km All-burnt velocity km/sec Decay 29 Oct 1966 impact at 6°42'N, 162°E

Specifications:

Description:

Mission details:

• Succesfully launched through a "window", 192 km above the Earth at a velocity of 29 284 kph with an acceptable error of plus or minus 87 kph.
• 49 minutes after launch the sensors were commanded to search for the Sun, which it found, and the star Canopus, which it did not found. That sensor was switched to find the Moon, and this gave an orientation reference for the flight to the Moon. A cource correction was made 28 hours after launch with a 32 second burn of the main engine to aim for a point 200 km above the Moon's side. About 94 hours into the flight, the retro rocket fired for 39 sec, which reduced velocity by 2846 kph, putting the first American spacecraft into lunar orbit (190 x 1867 km at 12.2° with period 3hr 37 min) on 14th August. The photographic mission began almost immediately. On 21st August a 22.4 sec burn of the engine reduced the height of the orbit to 56 x 1853 km to make more close-up studies of the surface. On 25th August a 3 second burn reduced the height again, to 40.5 x 1817 km, the following day the "classic" photo of the Earth rising above the Moon's horizon was taken. The last photos were taken on 29th August, and the images had all ben sent back by 14th September, a total of 413 photographs, which covered 5.18 million kmē of the surface, including over 41 000 kmē of the "Apollo-zone" of potential landing sites.
• The craft continued in orbit for another month, until the attitude control gas was nearly depleted, and on 29th October, after 527 orbits in 77 days, a 97 sec retro-fire burn brought the craft down to impact at 6°42'N, 162°E - on the far side of the Moon.