Surveyor 1 was the first U.S. spacecraft to make a soft landing on the Moon, touching down in Oceanus Procellarum on June 2, 1966.
NASA launched Surveyor 1 on May 30, 1966, during the period when the United States was preparing for crewed Apollo lunar missions. The spacecraft used a retrorocket and landing engines to reduce its speed before touchdown, unlike earlier Ranger probes that deliberately impacted the lunar surface.
Surveyor 1 transmitted more than 11,000 photographs and performed engineering measurements of the lunar soil. Its results helped show that a spacecraft could land without sinking dangerously into the surface, an important consideration for Apollo landing-site planning.
The Soviet Union’s Luna 9 had achieved the first soft landing on the Moon several months earlier, in February 1966. Surveyor 1 therefore holds the more specific U.S. milestone. It also began a successful series of Surveyor missions designed to support lunar exploration.