AGS Archives AGS Timeline Archives 1967 Archives 1965

1966 -- AGS Archives    Surveyor 2, an unpiloted spacecraft designed to gather data about the moon’s surface composition, is launched on September 20, 1966, and tumbled out of control on the way to the moon. The spacecraft transmitted data until it crashed on the moon near Copernicus crater.   On February 3, 1966, the Soviet Union accomplished the first controlled landing on the Moon, when the unmanned spacecraft Lunik 9 touched down on the Ocean of Storms.