The launch
I lifted off on April 17, 1967, at 07:05:01 UT from Launch Complex 36B at Cape Canaveral, Florida. My launch vehicle was Atlas-Centaur AC-12, using an Atlas D and Centaur D configuration.
Unlike earlier Surveyor missions, I began with a parking orbit around Earth. The Centaur upper stage was capable of multiple firings, and a later burn sent me onward toward the Moon.
Why this mattered
My launch was the beginning of a mission that would test not only whether a spacecraft could land on the Moon, but also whether its surface could be measured and sampled by a remotely controlled machine.
Mission facts on this page are drawn from the supplied NASA mission record and Asif A. Siddiqi, Beyond Earth: A Chronicle of Deep Space Exploration, 1958–2016 (NASA History Program Office, 2018). Surveyor 3 · NASA / Jet Propulsion Laboratory mission.