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Mission record

Surveyor 6

Also known as Surveyor-F, Surveyor6, Surveyor VI

NASA · Launched

Explore trajectory

Completed · Success

The fourth Surveyor to land successfully; a firing of its vernier engines on the surface produced the first powered takeoff from the Moon, hopping the lander about 2.4 meters west of its original position.

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

Chronology

Mission timeline

  1. Launch

    Surveyor 6 launched (source GMT converted to UTC using IERS C04)

    Earth
  2. Milestone

    Surveyor 6 separated from Centaur (source GMT converted to UTC)

    Earth
  3. Milestone

    Surveyor 6 10.06 m/s midcourse correction commanded (source GMT converted to UTC)

    Earth
  4. Milestone

    Surveyor 6 main retro motor ignited (source GMT converted to UTC)

    Moon
  5. Landing

    Surveyor 6 touched down in Sinus Medii

    Moon
  6. Milestone

    Surveyor 6 lunar hop vernier engines ignited

    Moon
  7. Milestone

    Surveyor 6 hop vernier engines shut down (source GMT converted to UTC)

    Moon
  8. Milestone

    Surveyor 6 completed its 6.1-second lunar hop (source GMT converted to UTC)

    Moon
  9. Mission end

    Last transmission received from Surveyor 6

    Moon

Mission architecture

Vehicles

  • Surveyor 6 · 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 6: Separate pre/postmidcourse coasts and later post-hop surface interval · November 7, 1967 to December 14, 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