The Surveyor project began its development in 1961. NASA originally contemplated delivering more than two dozen scientific instruments to the surface of the Moon with a first launch as early as 1963. Delayed repeatedly by the extended development of the launch vehicle’s Centaur booster and the difficulties of its own development, Surveyor underwent many evolutions of management, engineering and science before successfully landing with a remote-controlled TV camera at Flamsteed in Oceanus Procellarum in June 1966.

LPL currently leads the effort to digitize the Surveyor Camera dataset and make these data accessible to the public. See SIC Surveyor Digitization.