Lunar Orbiter 3, boosted by its Atlas Agena D carrier was launched on February 5, 1967, and entered moon orbit on the 8th. Its mission was to photograph the prime site in eastern Mare Tranquillitatis (Sea of Tranquility), one of the potential landing site for Apollo.
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| A Lunar Orbiter 3 launch cover from "SpaceCraft Swanson", postmarked at Patrick Air Force Base with a machine cancel on February 5, 1967. |
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| A Lunar Orbiter 3 launch cover from "Orbit Covers", postmarked at Cape Canaveral with a machine cancel on February 5, 1967. |
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| A Lunar Orbiter 3 lunar-orbit cover from "Orbit Covers", postmarked at Cape Canaveral with a machine cancel on February 8, 1967. |
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| Photo: "Sea of Tranquility" on the moon taken by Lunar Orbiter 3. |
The orbit of Lunar Orbiter 3 was altered several times during the mission to give controllers on Earth more experience with communications during lunar orbit. Lunar Orbiter 3 drew great attention when it photographed the Surveyor 1 spacecraft that landed on the moon in early June 1966. The mission ended on 9 October 1967 when it was deliberately crashed the spacecraft into the Moon.
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| Photo: "Moon Landing Sites Selected for America Astronauts. This photo, released by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, lists eight prime lunar landing sites for America astronauts. NASA said it had chosen the prime sites after reviewing photos by Orbiter II, shown by a black square, and Orbiter III, shown by a black circle. AP Wirephoto. April 10, 1967." |
