Lunar Orbiter Missions Information

There were a total of five Lunar Orbiter missions were launched in 1966 through 1967. The purpose of of the Lunar Orbiter program was to map the lunar surface before the Apollo landings. All five missions were successful. 99% of the Moon was photographed with a resolution of 60 m or better. Lunar Orbiter 1 - Lunar Orbiter 3 were dedicated to imaging 20 potential lunar landing sites, selected based on Earth-based observations. These were flown at low inclination orbits. Lunar Orbiters 4 and 5 had other scientific purposes and were flown in high altitude polar orbits. Lunar Orbiter 4 photographed the entire nearside and 95% of the farside, and Lunar Orbiter 5 completed the farside coverage and acquired medium (20 m) and high (2 m) resolution images of 36 pre-selected areas. The images at the top of the page show the Lunar Orbiter spacecraft with the high and medium resolution cameras at the center, and an image of the crater Tycho taken with the Lunar Orbiter 5 medium resolution camera.