28, 1966, Lunar Orbiter 1 had completed its main photography mission, having exposed a total of 205 frames, of which 38 were taken in the initial orbit and 167 in lower orbits, covering an area of 2 million square miles (5.18 million square kilometers).Īs planned, it photographed all nine potential Apollo landing sites as well as 11 sites on the far side of the Moon. The spacecraft’s primary mission was to photograph nine potential Apollo landing sites, seven secondary areas, and the Surveyor 1 landing site. The vehicle also displayed higher than expected temperatures but successfully entered a 1,160 × 118-mile (1,866.8 × 189.1-kilometer) orbit around the Moon on Aug. Flight controllers used a backup method by using the same sensor, but with the Moon to orient the vehicle. On the way to the Moon, the spacecraft’s Canopus star tracker failed to acquire its target, probably because the spacecraft’s structure was reflecting too much light. Lunar Orbiter 1 was launched into a parking orbit around Earth before its Agena upper stage fired at 20:04 UT to insert it on a translunar trajectory. The narrow-angle pictures taken by this system provided resolution of 200 to 260 feet (60 to 80 meters), while the wide-angle photos showed resolutions up to 0.3 miles (0.5 kilometers). In a twist that was not known until after the end of the Cold War, the Eastman Kodak camera flown on NASA's Lunar Orbiters was originally developed by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and flown on the Samos E-1 spy satellite. ![]() The primary instrument on the spacecraft was a 150-pound (68-kilogram) Eastman Kodak imaging system (using wide and narrow-angle lenses) that could develop exposed film, scan the images, and send them back to Earth. ![]() NASA planned to launch a series of three-axis stabilized spacecraft, each with four solar panels and a main engine (derived from an Apollo attitude control thruster) for lunar orbit insertion. The Lunar Orbiter program originated in response to the need to obtain detailed photographs of potential Apollo landing sites. 29, 1966: Spacecraft crashed on Moon In Depth: Lunar Orbiter 1
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