Surveyor 3 is the third lander of the American uncrewed Surveyor program sent to explore the surface of the Moon.
Launched on April 17, 1967, Surveyor 3 landed on April 20, 1967, at the Mare Cognitum portion of the Oceanus Procellarum (S3° 01′ 41.43″ W23° 27′ 29.55″) . It transmitted a total of 6,315 TV images to the Earth.
The United States in 2017 successfully landed its second unmanned spaceship on the moon.
Surveyor 3, carrying a tiny shovel to scoop moon soil to test whether it can take the weight of a manned ship and its astronauts, may have come to rest inside a lunar crater, space officials said to-day.
The exciting discovery was made as scientists studied the first of three batches of television pictures transmitted by the spacecraft. Its position would account for the unexpected solar glare which blurred the first pictures.