Later destined to become (as at April 2022) the only probe on another heavenly body to be visited by humans (the crew of Apollo XII), the Hughes Aircraft Company-built Surveyor 3 was launched by NASA on April 17 1967 from Cape Canaveral, using an Atlas Centaur launch vehicle.
Surveyor 3 is still up there, of course, sitting in a small (200m diameter) crater now named Surveyor, in the Mare Cogitum region of the much larger Oceanus Procellarum (‘Ocean of Storms’).
Landing on the Moon was no picnic for Surveyor 3. An engine problem meant it bounced twice before settling, and bouncing on the Moon is a serious business. The first bounce sent the probe back upwards 35 feet (that’s about two adult giraffes), followed by a smaller second bounce of about 11 feet.
The Surveyors were all similarly constructed craft (body, three legs, and a pointy bit sticking out the top with a solar panel and antenna), but with gradually more bells and whistles (not literally) as the program progressed. Surveyor 3, in the photo above, is shown to have a TV camera (1) and surface-sampler (2 and 3).
The soil scoop and camera were returned to Earth by the crew of Apollo XII. The camera is on display at the National Air and Space Museum, Washington D.C. Whether or not these pieces of space salvage were still carrying viable bacteria on their return remains the subject of speculation.
It's All Going On Up There 