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Mission record

Surveyor 4

Also known as Surveyor4

NASA · Launched

Explore trajectory

Failed · Failure

The fourth Surveyor soft-lander; after a flawless flight to the Moon its radio signals ceased during terminal descent, about 2.5 minutes before planned touchdown, and contact was never reestablished.

Destinations
Launch vehicle
Atlas-Centaur
Launch site
Cape Canaveral, United States
Countries
United States
Mission types
Lander

Chronology

Mission timeline

  1. Launch

    Surveyor 4 launched (source GMT converted to UTC using IERS C04)

    Earth
  2. Milestone

    Main retro motor ignition (best-estimate spacecraft event time)

    Moon
  3. Loss of contact

    Spacecraft signal ceased 41.09 seconds after main-retro ignition

    Moon
  4. Loss of contact

    Goldstone stations lost contact after onboard transmission ceased

    Moon

Mission architecture

Vehicles

  • Surveyor 4 · Lander

    Destinations: Moon

Trajectory record

Time-dependent navigation trajectory

Source states place the model at the selected time. Reconstructed flight, estimates, predictions and historical mission plans are identified by interval; gaps remain visible.

Source records and sampling assumptions are retained with the repository data. Model attitude and surface appearance are illustrative.

  • Surveyor 4: Post-midcourse coast ending before powered terminal descent · July 16, 1967 to July 17, 1967

Provenance

Sources

Each source is listed once and labeled with the mission, event, trajectory, or destination/body context it supports.

Data verified through October 6, 2026