Surveyor program in the Space Race with the Soviet Union. Thus, the Surveyor 1 landing in June 1966, only four months after the Soviet Luna 9 probe landed in February, was an indication the programs were at similar stages. Surveyor program The Surveyor program was a NASA program that, from June 1966 through January 1968, sent seven robotic spacecraft to the surface of the Moon. Its primary goal was to demonstrate the feasibility of soft landings on the Moon. The Surveyor craft were the first American spacecraft to achieve soft landing on an extraterrestrial body. The missions called for the craft to
USSR-1 At about 06:00 Moscow time the envelope was filled with 3 thousand cubic meters of hydrogen, or 1/8 of the balloon's geometric capacity. At stratospheric altitudes this amount would have expanded to fill the whole envelope. Prokofiev reported status to Air Forces chief Jēkabs Alksnis around 8:00. "USSR-1" with Prokofiev, Godunov and radio operator Ernst Birnbaum on board lifted off at 8:40 Moscow Time and established radio contact with ground five minutes later. According to Prokofiev's flight log, at 9:17 am "USSR-1" passed 16,800 meter mark, beating Piccard's record; between 9:19 and 9:26 the aircraft, fully expanded, levelled in a