Surveyor 2

  1966-084A

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Surveyor SC2 (Surveyor B) was launched at 1232 on 1966 Sep 20 by Atlas Centaur from Kennedy. The RL10A3-1 engined Centaur made a single burn direct ascent on azimuth 114.4 deg, cutting off at 1243. During the TCM one of three vernier engines, VE-3, failed. Repeated attempts to make the TCM resulted in the same engine failing to burn, so the mission was aborted. Engineering experiments were carried out but the spacecraft was tumbling. Finally the retro was fired and during the burn contact was lost at 0935 on Sep 22; calculations indicate the spacecraft impacted the Moon at 0318 on Sep 23 at around 4N 11W.

Surveyor 2
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1966 Sep 20	1232:00	Launch by AC-7	CKAFS LC36A
	1234:22	T+2:22 Atlas BECO
	1234:56	T+2:56 panels sep
		T+3:22 Fairing
	1235:55	T+3:55 Atlas SECO and VECO
	1235:56	Atlas sep	-5450? x 190? x 33.4
	1236:06	T+4:06 Centaur MES-1
	1243:26	T+11:26 Centaur MECO	165 x 791708 x 33.4 (GD)
	1243:51	SC2 legs deploy
	1244:01	SC2 antenna deploy
	1244:33	T+12:33 Centaur sep at 12.9N 50.2W	158 x 734000 x 33.6
	1248:32	Centaur retro	169 x 577531 x 33.4 (GD)
	1252:42	Centaur retro cutoff
	1301	Centaur post-retro	168 x 588992 x 33.45
1966 Sep 21	0500:02	TCM, one VE failed
	0500:41	TCM off
1966 Sep 21	0728	PTCM-1, 2s
	0750:03	PTCM-2, 2s
	1944:59	PTCM-3, 0.2s
	2007:05	PTCM-4, 0.2s
	2035:20	PTCM-5, 0.2s
	2055:06	PTCM-6, 0.2s
	2115:12	PTCM-7, 0.2s
	2333:23	PTCM-8, 2s
1966 Sep 22	0100:34	Begin new TCM series 9 to 14
	0128:11	Conclude PTCM-14
	0201	Begin new series 15 to 20
	0239	Conclude PTCM-20
	0317	New series 21-26
	0347	Conclude PTCM-26
	0417	New series 27-32
	0456	Conclude 32
	0543	PTCM-33
	0741	New series 34-39
	0805	PTCM-39, 21s
1966 Sep 22	0934:17	Radar ejected
	0934:27	Verniers on
1966 Sep 22	0934:28	Retro fired
1966 Sep 22	0935:00	Contact lost
1966 Sep 23	0318	Lunar impact	-1216 x -6166 x 4.0
1966 Sep 23		Centaur flyby 5675 km
		Centaur orbit	174773 x 596014