A NASA program of five robotic spacecraft launched in 1966 and 1967 to photograph the Moon from orbit in support of Apollo landing-site selection. All five missions succeeded, together mapping 99 percent of the lunar surface and returning the first photographs taken from lunar orbit, including early images of Earth as seen from the Moon.
Facts
Mission TypeRobotic lunar mapping program 1 Launch DateDate of Lunar Orbiter 1, the program's first mission. End DateDate of Lunar Orbiter 5, the program's final mission. OutcomeSuccessful; all five missions completed their objectives, and the spacecraft were deliberately crashed into the Moon afterward to avoid interfering with later missions' radio tracking. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
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