Lunar Orbiter 2
| Lunar Orbiter 2 | ||||||||||
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| NSSDC ID | 1966-100A | |||||||||
| Mission goal | Preparation of manned moon landings | |||||||||
| Client | NASA | |||||||||
| Launcher | Atlas - Agena D | |||||||||
| Course of the mission | ||||||||||
| Start date | November 6, 1966, 11:21 p.m. UTC | |||||||||
| launch pad | Cape Canaveral LC-13 | |||||||||
| End date | October 11, 1967 | |||||||||
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Lunar Orbiter 2 was the second of five lunar probes in the lunar orbiter program of the US space agency NASA . With the Lunar Orbiter program, the moon was to be captured and mapped photographically in order to find landing sites for the space probes of the Surveyor program and for the manned moon landing .
mission
Lunar Orbiter 2 was launched on 6 November 1966 aboard a Atlas - Agena D . After reaching the park orbit , the probe was brought onto a path to the moon by igniting the engines. It reached this 92.5 hours after take-off and swiveled into a strongly elliptical orbit of about 196 by 1850 km. It was inclined 12 ° to the ecliptic. Since most of the landing sites for the following probes were planned to be close to the equator, a steeper slope was not necessary.
Lunar Orbiter 2 captured 609 high and 208 medium resolution images between November 18 and 25, 1966 and transmitted them to Earth by December 7, 1966. The images were mostly of excellent quality and achieved resolutions of 1 m. Below is an oblique photo of the Copernicus crater , which the press took as "Picture of the Century". The other systems of the probe also worked perfectly and registered three impacts from micrometeorites. Lunar Orbiter 2 remained in lunar orbit for tracking purposes until the probe crashed on October 11, 1967 at 3.0 ° N, 119.1 ° E.
The exact crash site was determined in 2011 and photographed by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC). The debris of the probe, which was opened at an angle of about 45 degrees, is reminiscent of the wings of a butterfly.
Web links
- Lunar Orbiter 2 in the NSSDCA Master Catalog (English)
- Bernd Leitenberger: Lunar Orbiter