Q: Did Surveyor 2 land safely on the Moon?

A: No. A failed mid-course correction thruster sent the craft tumbling; it crashed into the lunar surface on 23 September 1966.

Q: How long did Surveyor 2 operate?

A: The spacecraft transmitted data for only a few minutes after launch; total mission elapsed time from launch to impact was about 63 minutes.

Q: What rocket launched Surveyor 2?

A: An Atlas-Centaur launch vehicle lifted the spacecraft from Cape Canaveral’s Launch Complex 36.

Q: Why was Surveyor 2 important if it crashed?

A: Its failure highlighted critical thruster-control flaws, leading to design fixes that helped the next five Surveyor missions achieve soft landings and return surface data.

Surveyor 2

failed lunar lander launched in 1966

Vehicle lunar_lander Q862799

Facts

17 properties

Instance of: lunar lander
Follows: Surveyor 1^[3]
Followed by: Surveyor 3^[4]
Launch date: 1966-09-20
Location: LQ19^[6]
Part of: Surveyor program^[7]
Duration: 3,766 second^[15]
Cause of destruction: hard landing^[11]
Country of origin: United States^[9]
Launch vehicle: Atlas-Centaur
Manufacturer: Hughes Aircraft Company^[5]
Mass: 995.2 kg, 292 kg^[16]^[17]
Operator: National Aeronautics and Space Administration^[2]
Significant event: rocket launch, hard landing^[12]^[13]
Space launch vehicle: Atlas-Centaur^[8]
Start point: Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 36^[14]
UTC date of spacecraft launch: September 20, 1966^[10]

🏷️ Also known as

en Surveyor 2 el Σερβέιγιορ 2 fa نقشه‌بردار ۲ hi सर्वेयर 2 hu Surveyor–2 ja サーベイヤー2号 ru Сервейер-2 zh 勘測者2號 zh 測量員2號 zh-hans 测量员2号

🔖 Identifiers · 6

Image (Wikimedia Commons): Surveyor mockup.jpg ↗
COSPAR ID: 1966-084A
Freebase ID: /m/0pfz5
NSSDCA ID: 1966-084A
SCN: 02425
Wolfram Language entity code: Entity["Satellite", "02425"]

Report an error or request removal Lineage (PROV-JSON)

🔗 Connections

Significant event 2

hard landing, rocket launch

Belongs to 1

Surveyor program

Cause of destruction 1

hard landing

Country of origin 1

United States

Followed by 1

Surveyor 3

Followed by (predecessor) 1

Surveyor 3

Follows 1

Surveyor 1

Instance of 1

lunar lander

Manufacturer 1

Hughes Aircraft Company

Operator 1

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Part of 1

Surveyor program

Preceded by (successor) 1

Surveyor 1

Space launch vehicle 1

Atlas-Centaur

Start point 1

Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 36

Press Enter · cited answer in seconds

Summary

Surveyor 2 is a lunar lander^[1].

References

Programmatic citations — every numbered marker resolves to a verifiable graph row below.

Direct Wikidata claims

[2] ↑ Surveyor 2 — operator (P137): National Aeronautics and Space Administration. wikidata.org.
[3] ↑ Surveyor 2 — follows (P155): Surveyor 1. wikidata.org.
[4] ↑ Surveyor 2 — followed by (P156): Surveyor 3. wikidata.org.
[5] ↑ Surveyor 2 — manufacturer (P176): Hughes Aircraft Company. wikidata.org.
[6] ↑ Surveyor 2 — location (P276): LQ19. wikidata.org.
[7] ↑ Surveyor 2 — part of (P361): Surveyor program. wikidata.org.
[8] ↑ Surveyor 2 — space launch vehicle (P375): Atlas-Centaur. Jonathan's Space Report. wikidata.org.
[9] ↑ Surveyor 2 — country of origin (P495): United States. wikidata.org.
[10] ↑ Surveyor 2 — UTC date of spacecraft launch (P619): September 20, 1966. Jonathan's Space Report. wikidata.org.
[11] ↑ Surveyor 2 — cause of destruction (P770): hard landing. wikidata.org.
[12] ↑ Surveyor 2 — significant event (P793): rocket launch. Jonathan's Space Report. wikidata.org.
[13] ↑ Surveyor 2 — significant event (P793): hard landing. wikidata.org.
[14] ↑ Surveyor 2 — start point (P1427): Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 36. Jonathan's Space Report. wikidata.org.
[15] ↑ Surveyor 2 — duration (P2047): 3766 seconds. wikidata.org.
[16] ↑ Surveyor 2 — mass (P2067): 995.2 kg. wikidata.org.
[17] ↑ Surveyor 2 — mass (P2067): 292 kg. wikidata.org.

Class ancestry

[1] ↑ Surveyor 2 is an instance of lunar lander (Q6703812) [P31, primary]. Wikidata. wikidata.org.

📑 Cite this page

Use these citations when quoting this entity in research, articles, AI prompts, or wherever provenance matters. We aggregate Wikidata + Wikipedia + authoritative open-data sources; the stitched, scored, cross-referenced view is what 4ort.xyz contributes.

APA 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph. (2026). Surveyor 2. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://4ort.xyz/entity/surveyor-2

MLA “Surveyor 2.” 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph, 4ort.xyz, 4 Nov. 2026, https://4ort.xyz/entity/surveyor-2.

BibTeX

@misc{4ortxyz_surveyor-2_2026, author = {{4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph}}, title = {{Surveyor 2}}, year = {2026}, url = {https://4ort.xyz/entity/surveyor-2}, note = {Accessed: 2026-11-04}}

LLM prompt

According to 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph (aggregator of Wikidata, Wikipedia, and authoritative open-data sources): Surveyor 2 — https://4ort.xyz/entity/surveyor-2 (retrieved 2026-11-04)

Canonical URL: https://4ort.xyz/entity/surveyor-2 · Last refreshed: November 4, 2026