Surveyor program

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The Surveyor Program comprised unmanned spaceflights to the Moon, with soft landings, without returning (although Surveyor 6 became the first spacecraft to lift off the moon).

It was initiated and carried out to demonstrate the feasibility of soft landing on the Moon. This was done in preparation for the Apollo Program. The program was implemented by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and performed several other services beyond its primary goal. The ability for a spacecraft to make midcourse corrections was demonstrated, and the landers carried instruments to assist with evaluation of the suitability of their landing sites for manned Apollo landings.

The Surveyor Shovel was a project to determine the composition of the Moon's surface. The robotic shovel was designed to dig at the surface and determine the composition of the materials. Before this project, it was unknown how deep the dust on the moon was. If the dust was too deep, then no astronaut could land.

There were seven Surveyor missions, five were successful. Surveyor 2 and 4 failed. Each consisted of a single unmanned spacecraft designed and built by Hughes Aircraft Company.

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