Lunar Orbiter 5

Lunar Orbiter 5
NSSDC ID	1967-075A
Mission goal	Preparation of manned moon landings
Client	NASA
Launcher	Atlas - Agena D
construction
Takeoff mass	385.6 kg
Course of the mission
Start date	August 1, 1967, 10:33 PM UTC
launch pad	Cape Canaveral LC-13
End date	January 31, 1968
1.8.1967 begin 5.8.1967 Reaching the lunar orbit 6.8.1967 Start of recordings 7/8/1967 First lowering of the track 9.8.1967 Second lowering of the track August 18, 1967 End of recordings August 27, 1967 End of image transmission January 31, 1968 Crash on the surface of the moon

Lunar Orbiter 5 was the last lunar probe of 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 history

The lunar probe launched on August 1, 1967 and entered a polar, elliptical orbit around the moon on August 5. The height of the orbit was between 194 and 6023 km, the inclination of the orbit 85 °, the orbit duration 8.5 hours. On August 6th, recordings of the lunar surface began. On the following day the proximity to the moon was reduced to 100 km, and on August 9 the distance to the moon was reduced to 1,499 km. The recordings ended on August 18th, after which the images were broadcast to earth until August 27th. The mission produced 211 medium resolution images and 633 high resolution images. On January 31, 1968, the probe was deliberately brought down and hit at 3 ° S, 83 ° W.

Web links

Commons : Lunar Orbiter program  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Lunar Orbiter 5 in the NSSDCA Master Catalog (English)
• Lunar Orbiter in the Encyclopedia Astronautica (English)
• Bernd Leitenberger: Lunar Orbiter